China

Trade Deficit for November 2010 - $38.3 Billion

Submitted by on

The November 2010 U.S. trade deficit decreased $0.1 billion to $38.3 billion. October's trade deficit was revised to $38.4 billion. Exports increased $1.2 billion and imports increased $1.1 billion. That's only a 0.7% increase in exports from last month, so in a nutshell, the trade deficit didn't budge much from October.

 

WTO Rules Against China on Tire Tariffs, China Currency Manipulation Amendment to Senate Tax Bill Introduced

Submitted by on

The WTO has ruled against China and in favor for the United States on Chinese tire import tariffs.

Bloomberg:

World Trade Organization judges rejected China’s complaint that U.S. tariffs on Chinese car and light-truck tires violate global trade rules, saying the Obama administration “did not fail to comply with its obligations.”

President Barack Obama announced the three-year duties on $1.8 billion of tires from China in September 2009, acting on a complaint by the United Steelworkers union, which represents 15,000 employees at 13 tire plants in the U.S. The union said Chinese tire exports to the U.S. tripled from 2001 to 2004 to 41 million and called for a cap on annual imports of 21 million.

China screamed protectionist, which the WTO rejected. The tariff schedule for Chinese tires was 1st year: 35%, 2nd: 30%, then 25%. This is a huge deal, a major victory because the WTO allowed tariffs as a trade remedy. It's also important that just because someone name calls something protectionist, does not make it illegal under the WTO.

Meanwhile Indian imported steel pipe is being dug up because it's defective and Senators Sherrod Brown and Olympia Snowe have introduced an amendment to put tariffs on China for currency manipulation.

Labor costs are only 10% of U.S.-China price differential.

"The other 90% is subsidy, currency manipulation, environmental practices run amok and labor practices that are simply deplorable," Leo Hindery Jr., chairman of the U.S. Economy/Smart Globalization Initiative, told the Conference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing held on Sept. 28 in Washington, D.C., according to Industry Week.

China Trade Surplus Record Quarter

Submitted by on

In case you missed China's guilt trippin' the United States and claiming economic collapse if they are forced to quit their currency manipulation, check this out.

China Trade Surplus Caps Biggest Quarter Since 2008:

China, the world’s biggest exporter, posted a $16.9 billion trade surplus for September, capping the largest quarterly excess since the financial crisis in 2008 as pressure mounts for a stronger yuan.

Exports rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier and imports climbed 24.1 percent, the customs bureau said on its website today. The third-quarter trade gap was $65.6 billion, the most since a $114 billion surplus in the final three months of 2008.

The story gets weirder, half of the headlines claim china trade slowed dramatically when seemingly only Bloomberg got it right by the numbers. Here is the China state newspaper article, which explains some of spin on the numbers:

China's September trade surplus falls to $16.88 billion, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Wednesday.

The country's exports increased 25.1 percent in September from a year earlier to $144.99 billion, but the pace of growth slowed from August's 34.4-percent surge.

The country's imports rose 24.1 percent year on year to reach $128.11 billion last month, with the growth rate down 11.1 percentage points from that in August.

China Record Trade Surplus

Submitted by on

As usual China's economy is on fire, fueled by their exports. The China trade surplus was $28 billion.

China's July exports of $145.5 billion represented a 38% increase over July 2009, down from June's 44% increase. But growth in imports — which hit $116.8 billion — slowed even more dramatically, leading to the bulging surplus.

Most interesting is how this is downplayed in the U.S. press, for the obvious, confront China on currency manipulation is seemingly only a topic for sound bytes.

Note the different percentage quotes between USA today (above) and the China English newspaper. Both percentages are true but the U.S. press downplays the never ending global imbalance for it means the U.S. must act on currency manipulation as well as other unfair trade practices by China.

Xinhua:

Latest statistics show that China's monthly trade surplus trumped almost all forecasts to hit an 18-month high, up 170 percent from a year earlier to $28.7 billion.

In view of the fragile global recovery, most observers believed China could hardly run an even larger monthly trade surplus than what it posted in June, a whopping $20 billion.

IMF releases China Report

Submitted by on

You might recall how China killed the release of the IMF report. Notice how China can get a report repressed, unlike most countries, or do they even try. The biggest news is how China is on track to be the world's largest economy.

Well, finally the IMF released the report.

What's frightening is how the IMF shows China's stimulus worked and then some. The difference between them and the United States? China has the jobs, they now have the world's manufacturing base.

Indeed, all of Asia (minus Japan) is experiencing a V Shaped Recovery:

ADB has upgraded its 2010 growth forecast for the 14 economies of emerging East Asia to an aggregate 8.1% from the 7.7% projected in ADB’s Asian Development Outlook 2010 published in April. The forecast for the region’s economic growth in 2011 remains at 7.2%.

The IMF is back to telling China to significantly revalue their currency. This is the elephant in the room China does not want mentioned.

Staff believe that the renminbi remains substantially below the level that is consistent with medium-term fundamentals.

Interestingly, the IMF has put China's objections in the text, instead of their own specifics. Still currency manipulation is a key finding from the IMF report.

BP Blow-out Preventer Offshore Outsourced to China

Submitted by on

You're going to love this one. BP offshore outsourced the redesign of the blow-out preventer to China. Yes this is the very blow-out preventer that failed and caused the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

BP ordered the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, whose explosion led to the worst environmental disaster in US history, to overhaul a crucial piece of the rig's safety equipment in China, the Observer has learnt. The blow-out preventer – the last line of defence against an out-of-control well – subsequently failed to activate and is at the centre of investigations into what caused the disaster.

Experts say that the practice of having such engineering work carried out in China, rather than the US, saves money and is common in the industry.

This weekend BP remained cautiously optimistic that the cap placed on top of the Gulf of Mexico well on Thursday night would continue to hold back the torrent of oil. It is the first time the flow has been stopped since the accident happened almost three months ago. But BP said that the pressure readings from the Macondo well were not as high as it had hoped, which could indicate that it has ruptured and that oil could be leaking out somewhere else.

Pages