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Asian Trade "Partners" Blame US Victims of Their Mercantilist Strategies for Bi-lateral Trade "Problems"
Alan Tonelson
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Photo of Alan Tonelson
U.S.-ASIA TRADE TRENDS

Asians Blame U.S. Victims for Trade Problems –
And Washington Post Mindlessly Transmits the Message

“A chorus of complaints about U.S. trade policies largely drowned out grumbling over China's turbocharged export machine and threatened to put Obama on the defensive at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.”
–The Washington Post, November 15, 2009

U.S. goods trade deficit with Pacific Rim countries -- their share of total U.S. trade deficit, September, 2009: 72.64%

U.S. goods trade deficit with Pacific Rim countries -- their share of total U.S. trade deficit, year-to-date, 2009: 74.42%

Decline in total U.S. trade deficit since 2006 peak* to present:  –47.12%

Decline in U.S. goods trade deficit with Pacific rim countries since 2006* peak:  –22.87%

*based on Jan.-Sept. figures    



Sources: “On trip to seal ties with Asia, trade policy threatens rift,” by Andrew Higgins and Anne E. Kornblut,” The Washington Post, November 15, 2009; calculated from “Exhibit 1. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, Part A, Seasonally Adjusted,” and “Exhibit 14: Exports, Imports, and Balance of Goods by Selected Countries and Areas - Current Year,” FT 900: U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, September, 2009 and Annual Revision for 2006, U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/2009pr/09/ and http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/2006pr/final_revisions/

Alan Tonelson is a Research Fellow at the U.S. Business & Industry Educational Foundation and the author of The Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus and Uncontrolled Free Trade are Sinking American Living Standards (Westview Press).
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