Indiana to Beijing
From Wall Street Jouranal
As part of her populist reinvention, Hillary Clinton last week criticized a Chinese business deal in Indiana that her husband’s administration had supported. Perhaps she should have consulted the U.S.-China Business Council’s study on U.S. exports to China before arguing that ties with China are hurting Americans.
That’s right, exports. The study tracks exports from each Congressional district to China. Between 2000 and 2007, 406 of 426 House districts clocked triple-digit export growth to the mainland. Note that the bulk were manufactured goods: Electrical equipment and machinery, power generation equipment, and aircraft are America’s top three export categories to China in dollar terms. In services, the U.S. ran a $3.7 billion trade surplus with China in 2006, the latest year for which data are available.
Take Indiana’s first district, home of the Magnaquench factory in Valparaiso, whose 2005 closing has Senator Clinton so ruffled. Between 2000 and 2007, the first district’s exports to China increased 307%, compared with a 65% increase for exports to the rest of the world. That amounted to $74 million last year.
Or consider the sixth district, home to the city of Anderson, the former corporate home of Magnaquench. The sixth district saw its exports to China grow 311% between 2000 and 2007, reaching $118 million last year. Perhaps not coincidentally, the city’s official Web site includes sections in Chinese (as well as Japanese and German). In both of these case studies, by the way, the exports are overwhelmingly manufactured goods.
Trade with China, like trade with any country, will at times lead to closed factories and displaced workers. But these latest data are a reminder that trade creates new opportunities, too. Rather than ratcheting up the antitrade and anti-China rhetoric, the presidential candidates would do better focusing on helping Americans seize the opportunities of trade. Pro-growth tax and regulatory policies would make a good start.
Leave a Reply