In 2011, U.S exports rose by 14.4 percent to a record US$2.1 trillion. That’s the good news. The bad news is that imports also set an all-time high record of US$2.7 trillion, a 13.8 percent increase over 2010. It’s really not that hard to realize that the result is a deficit of 0.6 trillion – or US$558 billion, to be exact.
More than half of this trade deficit is with China, a startling US$295.4 billion. Even though U.S. exports to world’s most populated country rose by 13.1 percent to US$103.9 billion, it was offset by a 9.4 percent increase to a record US$399.3 billion in imports from China.
The auto industry was amongst those sectors that set new deficit records: last December alone marked an increase of US$1.8 billion in imported vehicles, parts and engines.
Leo W. Gerard, president of United Steetworkers (USW), criticized President Obama’s trade policy and claimed that is has led to the loss of more than 400,000 jobs in the U.S. automotive sector since 2000.
“Albert Einstein is credited with saying that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’”, said Gerard. “It’s time to update and reform our nation’s trade policies and be more aggressive about enforcing our trade laws. Following the same old approach is insane.”
Gerard cited a series of reports released in January by the USW, the UAW and a coalition of manufacturing companies, which shows that in 2011 alone the trade deficit in auto parts with China was US$9.95 billion – and no less than US$62 billion in the last decade.
“Next week, Chinese Vice President Xi, who is widely expected to be his country’s next leader, will be coming to Washington, D.C.”, said Gerard. “Press reports indicate that he wants to address the ‘trust deficit’ between our countries. But America’s workers are more interested in addressing the trade deficit.”
The USW president said that other countries, such as Japan and Brazil, were also part of the problem, but he stressed that the biggest threat the American automotive industry is facing, comes from China. “1.6 million U.S. jobs are at risk unless China’s illegal trading practices are curtailed,” said Gerard.
