International Trade News from Across the World

New York Times

• Comment: "Yukio Noguchi, a professor of finance at Waseda University in Tokyo, said Japan must finally evolve into a postindustrial, service-based economy — a painful transition that the United States and Great Britain underwent in the 1980s. Others said Japan should focus exclusively on high-end, high-profit products, like robots and fuel cells, rather than mass-produced goods subject to quality-control issues.“Even Toyota can fail. Even Lexus, even Prius,” said Mr. Noguchi. “Our world-leading manufacturing industry may no longer be world-leading. This has a strong impact on the national psyche.”

After Buying Spree, China Owns Stakes in Top U.S. Firms

New York Times

• Comment: "Flush with cash despite the global economic downturn, China’s sovereign wealth fund quietly snapped up more than $9 billion worth of shares last year in some of the biggest American corporations, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup.Although most of the stakes were small, China Investment Corp., the government’s $300 billion investment fund, now owns stock in some of the best-known American brands, including Apple, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola and Visa."

Obama’s Balancing Act on U.S. Trade Policies

New York Times

• Comment: "Mr. Obama, by contrast, has sent mixed signals since the 2008 Democratic primaries. While candidate Obama courted blue-collar votes by criticizing Nafta, his economic adviser Austan Goolsbee was depicted in a Canadian official’s government memorandum as having privately ascribed such rhetoric to political maneuvering.As president, Mr. Obama has not moved to renegotiate Nafta. The administration recently tempered the impact of “Buy America” provisions in last year’s economic stimulus legislation by agreeing to treat Canadian companies the same as American ones on some projects."

Obama starts new push on trade

The Hill

• Comment: “Trying to boost exports is a fine goal, but until the administration implements President Obama's campaign commitments to reform the trade agreements we now have in place, trade agreements that promote offshoring U.S. investment and jobs and flood us with imports, the possible job gains of export promotion will be swamped by the continuing damage of the failed, old trade deals so many Americans despise,” Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, wrote in a statement this week."

W.H., Chamber at odds on OSHA

Politico

• Comment: "As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the White House are trying to minimize their differences, a brewing battle at OSHA over a workplace-injury reporting rule illustrates how tough that could become, given the administration’s pro-labor leanings.While bureaucratic clashes over subtle rule changes such as this one are usually waged outside public view, they can have big ramifications for businesses and workers."

The Remaking of U.S. Manufacturing

Seeking Alpha

• Comment: "Mr. Peddecord said his company is bulking up after a shakeout that drove many rivals out of business. Manufacturing in the U.S., he said, allows it to turn around U.S. orders in 24 hours, an advantage in an industry where demand is volatile and clients try to keep inventories low. In addition, the reduced freight costs, compared with shipping goods from China, can offset the added cost of U.S. labor, since labor accounts for less than a hundredth of his average sales price."

Obama Administration Discovers Trade–As Another Great Excuse to Grow Government!

Heritage Blog

• Comment: "The NEI relies on too much government interference and too many USG bureaucrats shilling for politically well-connected companies. It was telling that the only FCS success story Sec. Locke cited involved the sale of a General Electric “combined cycle power plant” in Kuwait (in April 2009 after Obama took office, of course). GE’s Chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, is a well-known Obama supporter and GE owns pro-Obama MSNBC. "

MICHAEL HICKS: Uncertainty is crushing job creation

Star Press

• Comment: "The business environment today is rife with more uncertainty than any time since perhaps the Civil War. The reasons are simple: health care, cap and trade, the employee free choice act, financial regulation and inflation. The ambition of the federal policy agenda is its own undoing. The greed for change will stall job growth and will slow the economy for the foreseeable future."

GM China sales nearly doubled in January

Detroit News

• Comment: "The Detroit automaker said it sold 219,192 vehicles in China in January, up 97 percent from a year earlier. By contrast, GM sold 146,315 vehicles in the United States in January, a 14 percent increase from January 2009."

Toyota woes highlight Japan's cash or 'kaisha' dilemma

Moneycontrol.com

• Comment: "The incredible success of the Japanese economy is based on the 'kaisha'. It's based on this specific management model," he said, referring to Japan's rapid economic growth before stalling in the 1990s. "However, times have changed." Panasonic Corp, Lippert says, is another company that has been unable to evolve enough from its traditional roots to fully exploit opportunities overseas. Despite dealing in global products, Panasonic still gets half its sales in Japan."

Corning Watch: Corning Inc. anticipates bigger role in China

Sun and Press

• Comment: "With a recent increase in the Chinese government subsidy for the purchase of televisions and other appliances, Corning Inc. expects China to become the world's largest market for the flat-panel TVs."

Obama Pushes Small Business Plans

Wall Street Journal

• Comment: "Mr. Obama warned lawmakers to not oppose many of the small business proposals--which could be debated next week in Congress--because "it's good politics to do so.""The proposals I've outlined are not Democratic or Republican; liberal or conservative," he said. "They are pro-business, they are pro-growth, and they are pro-job"

Locke says enforcement will help U.S. double exports

Reuters

• Comment: "Obama also is creating an Export Promotion Cabinet that includes top officials from the Departments of Commerce, State and Agriculture as well as the U.S. Trade Representative's office, the Small Business Administration and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Locke said.Each agency will be charged with developing a detailed plan over the next six months for boosting exports.Obama also has directed the Exim Bank to boost export credit financing for small and medium-sized business from $4 billion to $6 billion over the next year, and his budget calls for $80 million in additional funding for the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration.The new resources will allow ITA to hire as many as 328 trade experts to serve as advocates for U.S. companies and to assist more than 23,000 clients to begin or grow their export sales in 2011, Locke said.'

A Globe Still in Need of Steel

New York Times

• Comment: "While production plummeted in the United States and dropped in many other countries, it climbed in China. India eked out a gain, and the Middle East also showed an increase.In the United States, the biggest steel-producing states include Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas, according to the United States Steel Manufacturers Association. And Pennsylvania remains a maker of steel, though at nothing near the level it was in Andrew Carnegie’s day."

A Recovery That’s Factory-Built and Gaining Speed

New York Times

• Comment: "To some extent, the recoveries around the world may be less due to any government programs than they are to the fact companies overreacted, slashing everything they could — including employment, orders and inventories — when the outlook appeared darkest. Just getting back to the actual low levels of demand in the recession may require some additional production."

Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces

New York Times

• Comment: "As in previous recessions, male workers have borne the brunt of the job losses in the last two years. Since the recession began in December 2007, men have lost 7.4 million jobs on net, whereas women have lost 3.9 million jobs.In other words, both sexes are worse off than they were before the downturn, but men have suffered more.The types of jobs held by men and women help explain the shift. Men are more likely to work in industries like manufacturing, which rise and fall with the economic cycle. Women are more likely to work in government, health care and education, among the safest categories in a downturn."

Open to idea of payroll tax break for jobs: White House

Reuters

• Comment: "Schumer and Hatch have proposed a payroll tax break for any business that hires someone unemployed for at least two months. In a January 26 New York Times opinion piece, they proposed every employer who hires such a worker be forgiven from paying the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on that employee for the rest of 2010.The idea differs from a proposal considered last year by the Obama administration that would grant companies tax credits, to be obtained after hiring."

A Broad U.S. Push to Ease Credit for Small Businesses

New York Times

• Comment: "The latest plan, which like the others would need Congressional approval, has two components, both involving the Small Business Administration. One would expand the agency’s 504 program, which guarantees loans for real estate development, to cover refinancings. The expansion could help refinance up to $18.7 billion a year in commercial real estate that might otherwise face foreclosure and liquidation, officials estimated.The other would temporarily increase to $1 million, from $350,000, the maximum loan size under a program called S.B.A. Express that provides federally guaranteed financing through a streamlined approval process."

Solis Seeks Passage of Jobs, Business Plan

Wall Street Journal

• Comment: "Committee Chairman George Miller (D., Calif.), said another "critical mission" for Labor is to protect the health and safety of workers. "For too long, OSHA failed to respond to real dangers and put American workers in needless peril," he said during his opening statement.The Obama administration has proposed $14 billion to fund Labor Department divisions. Several divisions, including the Employee Benefits Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Wage and Hour Division, among others, saw moderate increases to their fiscal 2011 unit budgets from 2010 levels."

Manufacturing sector posts first jobs gain since January 2007

Security Info Watch

• Comment: Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that the economy has been growing for six months, yet company payrolls are still shrinking. "Based on what we've seen so far, we think it is fair to characterize this as another jobless recovery," Ashworth said. Left behind are people like Aimee Brittain, 31, who said she can't get employers to return her calls. She's hunting for work as a secretary after being laid off from a commercial real estate firm near her home in suburban Atlanta."I'm fighting against people with master's degrees for receptionist jobs," Brittain said. "I can't compete."

Jobless Americans give up looking

3 News

• Comment: "The exodus did halt in January, when a net total of 111,000 people re-entered the job market. But 661,000 had left in December. And the overall trend since spring has been people leaving the work force. "It's very unusual," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "At this point in the business cycle, we should be seeing some sort of labour force growth. Layoffs have abated, but there really has been no pickup in hiring."

'On the Brink': Inside Henry Paulson's head, inside the financial crisis

Austin American Statesman

• Comment: "Judging from this account, Paulson worried about what his "old friends" in Beijing would think; the Chinese, after all, held hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. debt. Yet his biggest opponent was the market itself."The market was determined to call our bluff," he says in describing Bear Stearns' shotgun marriage to JPMorgan Chase."

China Rejects U.S. Complaints on Its Currency

New York Times

• Comment: "Reopening the battle with Beijing over its currency may pay political dividends for Mr. Obama at a time of double-digit unemployment and growing fears that China is stealing American jobs. But experts say the president will have even less leverage over Beijing than President George W. Bush did. Mr. Bush prodded China for years to adjust its exchange rate with little success.China, they say, is determined to reignite its export machine after a global recession that sapped demand for Chinese goods. A cheap currency is vital to that goal. And as indicated by Mr. Ma’s statement on Thursday, China’s leaders have grown impatient with lectures on economic policy from their chief debtor, the United States."

China to levy anti-dumping duties on U.S. chicken

CNN Money

• Comment: "The tariffs were announced a day after China requested a World Trade Organisation ruling on European Union duties on shoes made in China. That was the most recent of many cases demonstrating China's embrace of the WTO to keep markets open to the exports on which it depends."

Democrats Sketch Outline of Jobs Plan

New York Times

• Comment: "The core of the proposal is likely to be a payroll tax break for employers who hire workers who have been without jobs for at least 60 days."

White House Unveils Plan to Double U.S. Exports

New York Times

• Comment: "Administration officials said the export initiative would provide more financing for export promotion and would identify markets for fast-growing areas like green energy and environmental goods and services, health care and biotechnology. Mr. Locke promised that from now on, export promotion would have “focused attention from the president and his cabinet.”The administration will also form an export promotion cabinet — to be made up of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Ron Kirk, the United States trade representative; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Mr. Locke."

Europe's debt crisis intensifies

Seattle Times

• Comment: "Spooked investors worldwide were fleeing risky assets like stocks. And from Shanghai to Sao Paolo, people were awakening to the reality that what is happening in these European minnow states has vast implications for the fate of the fragile global economic recovery.Stocks fell in Asia and Europe as governments in Portugal and Greece pushed against fierce political resistance at home to cutbacks aimed at getting their deficits under control.Markets fear Greece may default or require a costly bailout from already strapped European governments, and those concerns are spreading to other financially troubled governments such as Portugal and Spain."

U.S. sees China moving on currency despite rhetoric

Reuters

• Comment: "Even if China wants to adjust its exchange rate, it is nearly impossible for Beijing to meet the demands of the U.S. -- this is China's own business," Li Jian, a researcher with a think-tank under China's Ministry of Commerce, told Reuters.But U.S. trade expert William Reinsch said Obama's remarks came amid growing U.S. frustration with a China that is "engaged in a variety of bullying activities" on Taiwan and Tibet, while not moving to resolve trade imbalances."

China Escalates Trade Fight Over European Shoe Tariff

New York Times

• Comment: "In a statement issued by its mission in Geneva, where the W.T.O. is based, the Chinese government said Europe’s actions “violated various obligations under the W.T.O., and consequently caused damage to the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese exporters.”It added that China “had repeatedly consulted” with the European Union but said that its concerns “had not been properly addressed or settled.”

Geithner says China likely to move on yuan

Reuters

• Comment: "I think it's actually quite likely (China) will move. I think they recognize it's important to them, in their interest as well," Geithner told the Senate Budget Committee."And it's an important part of what we're trying to do generally to try to make sure that the world is growing. That it's growing not on the basis of an investment-led, export-heavy model again. That it's growing with stronger consumption, stronger domestic demand," Geithner said in response to a question from Senator Ben Cardin."

China hits back at Barack Obama's claims that yuan is undervalued

Guardian.co.uk

• Comment: "Obama addressed those concerns at a meeting with US senators yesterday, saying: "The approach that we're taking is to try to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries. "One of the challenges that we've got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price. That puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage."

America?s economic crisis is not over ? Paul Craig Roberts

Malaysian Insider

• Comment: "The real American crisis is the off-shoring of US manufacturing, industrial, and professional service jobs such as software engineering and information technology.Jobs off-shoring was initiated by Wall Street pressures on corporations for higher earnings and by performance-related bonuses becoming the main form of managerial compensation. Corporate executives increased profits and obtained bonuses by substituting cheaper foreign labour for US labour in the production of goods and services marketed in the U.S.Jobs off-shoring is destroying the ladders of upward mobility that made the US an opportunity society and eroding the value of a university education."

New US export strategy eyes Asia

Yahoo! Malaysia

• Comment: 'Obama's strategy to get US companies to pump out exports is aimed at supporting the creation of two million jobs in America, which is still reeling from double digit unemployment that threatens to dampen its economic recovery."If we just increased our exports to Asia by a percentage point, by a fraction, it would mean hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of jobs here in the United States. And it's easily doable," Obama told Senators from his Democratic party Wednesday."

Pipe Plant Closing

103.7 The Q

• Comment: "Company officials at U.S. Pipe say closing the Collegeville facility will put 260 people out of a job while saving the company $20-million a year."

'Buy American' deal to be announced Friday

CNEWS

• Comment: "The pact will exempt Canadian companies from the ban on foreign contracts on what remains of a massive $800-billion stimulus package passed by U.S. Congress last year."

China refuses to bow to US pressure

EuroNews

• Comment: "Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Yhaoxu told a news briefing:“Given the international balance of payments and market supply and demand, the level of the yuan is already reasonable and balanced, “ he said. “Accusations and pressure don“t help.”

Currency Dispute Likely to Further Fray U.S.-China Ties

New York Times

• Comment: "The administration has told Chinese officials that currency policy will be high on its agenda this year for economic talks with China, a senior official said on Wednesday. The White House is also weighing whether to designate China as a country that manipulates its currency, when the Treasury Department issues its semiannual report on foreign currencies in April."

On China, Obama says U.S. must address currency rates

Reuters

• Comment: "Underscoring U.S. concerns, Republican Senator Charles Grassley urged Obama to formally label China as a currency manipulator to get Beijing's attention that it needs to raise the value of its yuan. Obama so far has resisted that step.U.S. manufacturers have complained for years that Beijing's currency policies give Chinese companies an unfair price advantage in international trade. China says its exchange rate policy is an internal matter."

In Texas, Resistance Over Stricter U.S. Smog Limits

New York Times

• Comment: "The proposed lower standards also drew fire from manufacturers and oil and gas companies, who fear they will bear the brunt of the costs of cutting down the volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides that cause smog. Some issued dire warnings of jobs being cut to pay for it.“It will have a devastating impact on the chemical industry,” said Christina Wisdom, of the Texas Chemical Council."

Obama export plan includes trade deals: Geithner

Reuters

• Comment: "Obama announced a new "national export initiative" aimed at supporting 2 million American jobs by doubling exports over the next five years. Many Republicans applauded Obama's words but a powerful House Democrat, Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter, said on Wednesday they caused her concern."I and many members of Congress represent states where workers have been decimated by previous FTAs," she said in a statement."

A Small-Business Owner Takes His Case to the Top

New York Times

• Comment: Q. How much do you want, and what would you do with it? A. I need between $250,000 and $500,000. About $50,000 of this money would go to filing patents in foreign countries. We have customers waiting in the Middle East but I don’t have the money to file our patents, so we can’t sell to them.

$2 Trillion in Tax Hikes Is Good for the Economy?

CNBC

• Comment: "Here’s the key point. All of this fat-cat, class-warfare, soak the (allegedly) “rich” people tax hike proposals actually reduces investment and capital formation so much that jobs and wages will ultimately falter on Main Street. That’s what they’re missing.Taxing businesses and so-called “rich” people hurts ordinary working folks. That’s a fact. And that’s why this is a misbegotten policy. We’re not talking class warfare here, we’re talking growth."

US private sector job losses narrow but not enough

Yahoo! News

• Comment: "Jobs in the goods-producing sector declined 60,000, with employment in the manufacturing sector dropping 25,000, the smallest drop since January 2008."

U.S. job numbers show mixed picture

Yahoo! Canada

• Comment: "A separate report from job search firm Challenger Gray and Christmas said major U.S. employers announced 71,482 planned layoffs in January, a 59 per cent increase from December, when the number of planned job cuts reached a nine-year low. It was the first month-to-month increase in layoffs since July."

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