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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Trump is not articulate and he is not effective at translating realities of international trade into terms that the average American can appreciate. I don't have experience exporting to/from Mexico and Canada, but I know the trade between US and China is not fair and open. Whereas it is relatively easy to export goods from China to the US, the reverse flow is excruciatingly difficult. The tariff rates are high, and Chinese customs makes it very difficult for a shipment to clear customs and be released. We are a US business that has tried for the past three years to sell our products into the Chinese market and has found it very tough to get traction because our products are no longer competitive in terms of pricing and speed to delivery by the time we hop over the great wall of China Customs. On the other hand, I can have a container full of whatever commodity loaded and shipped on a vessel bound for the US in probably 3 days, knowing that US customs will clear it quickly/efficiently as long as all my paperwork is done properly.

As a business that sells to international customers, I am all for free and open trade, but it has to be actual free and open bilaterally. All too often, the US holds up their end of the bargain but the other side does not. This happens in international trade and security, with US ending up carrying the bulk of the burden. Enough is enough. [/quote]

How do you think this can be changed? China is offering its huge market to American companies. You think it is a win-win if China decides NOT to allow US companies to sell in its market. USA will collapse if china does that.

Also how many Chinese companies are selling in the USA? Can you name any? China can make the argument that US blocks entry of Chinese companies into the USA. China offers a huge infrastructure and scale for American companies to make anything in china IN EXCHANGE for access to its huge market.

US being a much smaller market is the real weakness here that nobody wants to address. This is the natural order of things and this is the reason why China has been an economic giant most of human history and has now reclaimed its top spot.

What cards does the USA have to play with the Chinese? China holds over 1 trillion $ of American debt. The dollar will collapse if they start selling or stop buying US debt. We are a profligate nation that spends money it borrows on needless wars and oil wars of the past.

We as a people are profligate people with less that 5% savings. Chinese save over 30%. So china has much more cash to invest in future. If US has that high a percent of savings we can deploy that money to fund infrastructure growth. But no, instant gratification rules. [/quote]

Change it by pushing for China to make it easier for US companies to sell its products and services to China. Push China to divest itself from ownership of the three major communication companies that operate data networks in China. Tell China that it is not acceptable to strong arm a US company into selling its China branch to a domestic competitor. Tell China that there will be a equitable application of tariffs for goods flowing into the US from China that echos what they charge US goods. This year's G20 summit saw the whole world pressuring China to ease their iron grip on the levers of their economy, artificially supporting a growth rate that does not reflect the reality of the global economy.

Year to date, China only account for about 60 billion of US exports, out of over 800 billion total, or less than 8 % of our global export. While 8% is not a small number, you are grossly overstating the importance of China as a foreign market for US companies. Again, much of this US export that China allows in is not for economic efficiency, but of important need for China. The top product types exported from US to China in 2015 are: aircraft ($15 billion), electrical machinery ($13 billion), machinery ($12 billion), miscellaneous grain, seeds, fruit (soybeans) ($11 billion), and vehicles ($11 billion). Of these, China simply has no competitive domestic capacity for aircraft, and agricultural production. Note that electrical machinery is actually mostly consumer electronics, which they may have domestic means to replace. But Machinery and vehicles are important components to their agricultural engine.

Your comment on China holding US debt shows that you don't really understand how international trade works. When there is a trade imbalance between two countries, one country will end up with a surplus of currency of the other country, which they have to somehow use: they spend it buying the other country's debt. So the fact that China has been and must continue to buy US debt is not that they want to or are doing us favors, but that they must do so due to the trade imbalance. If China reduces US imports further, this will cause the trade imbalance to grow, not shrink. Therefore, they would have to buy even more US debt as a result, not less.[/quote]

Tell china, how? China is the big 900 pound gorilla that everyone wants to tame BUT nobody knows how because nobody is united against China. China plays Europe against America and vice versa. Unless there is ONE huge market of ALL Anti-china countries as one single trade block, China cannot be controlled. That is what TPP is all about. Trying to make one NON-China trade block. Merger of NAFTA and TPP as one block will help. BUT THEN TRUMP wants to undo all trade deals making China even staronger and they will continue to play one against the other.

China is not blocking American companies from selling in Chinese market. [b]They only make a quid pro quo, If you want to sell in china, then make it in china. [/b] So obviously US exports to china will be less but American companies do sell in China worth trillions of dollars. They are playing their market size card well. Unless USA can cobble up a large enough UNITED trade bloc under their leadership, there is no taking on china and winning on this one.

WRT to debt, are you saying debtor nation has more leverage than the lender? yes the lender will suffer if the USA collapses BUT who will suffer more? China has huge internal cash reserves of its people's savings to reduce its suffering. USA doesn't have any internal savings, and being a democracy it is more vulnerable to people's sentiments than China. Another psychological factor is USA being wealthier will play NOT TO LOSE and that is a major weakness. [b]China has all the cards to play offense and USA is playing defense. This will not change unless USA creates a large enough trade block to counter chinese huge market. [/b][/quote]

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