But I suppose I would question what services or products you might be referring to?
Yeah, our trade deficit with China is huge. No doubt. They don't really buy much of our stuff.
Data for trade to China (
reference here) is below. As far as I can tell, this is for
goods only...services do not seem to be included.
Code:
U.S. Trade of goods with China
Year 2006 2007 2008 2009
-------------------------------------------
Exports 55 65 72 70 Billion $
Imports 288 322 338 296 Billion $
--------------------------------------------
Deficit 233 256 266 227 Billion $
In terms of what goods we export, our primary exports to China (same references as above and below) are "machinery" and "electrical machinery" and "electrical generating machinery", agricultural products (soybeans, more soybeans, cotton, other grains, and "hides and skins"), raw materials (scrap iron, steel, plastics, organic chemicals, paper pulp and paper board), and aircraft and spacecraft (ie, Boeing).
So, what's often left off these lists are services. Services are when they pay us to perform some sort of "work" for them...think financial services (Wall Street), engineering and architectural services, education services (college kids), entertainment (Hollywood products), and haircuts (you know we have a big haircut export business, right?). This
reference here says that, for 2007, we exported $14.2 Billion in services with China and we imported $8.8 Billion. That's a tidy little surplus for the U.S., but is still dwarfed by the deficit in goods.
I'm not trying to make any point here (other than our deficit with China is very large). Just trying to spread the facts, as best as I can find them.
Oh, and that 200-250 Billion dollar trade deficit, well, those are 200-250 Billion extra dollars that China needs to some how get rid of. It uses some of those dollars to buy oil (all world contracts are generally in US dollars), but the bulk of it comes back to the US when they buy our debt. At 200-250 Billion a year, you can see how quickly they could have built up the 2 Trillion dollars worth of our debt that they hold. I'm not arguing that that's a problem (it may be, it may not)...the trade deficit numbers just show how it happens.
Chip