Business Groups Lament No China Trade Deal

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hu_visit;_ylt=AuzbtQXSgSlknNghP9y2GCus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Business Groups Lament No China Trade Deal

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer 15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - While they didn't announce any major agreements,
President Bush and Chinese President
Hu Jintao both agreed that they had a productive summit meeting. U.S. critics of China's trade policies had a different view.


"The president failed to make any significant progress in talks with his Chinese counterpart," complained Kevin Kearns, the president of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, which represents around 1,500 small and medium-sized manufacturing companies.

.......

"This really sounds like a missed opportunity," said Frank Vargo, international vice president for the manufacturers' group. "We were really hoping that significant progress would be made so that both governments would begin to work together to address this very large trade imbalance."

And on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are pushing a variety of measures that would punish China for its current practices, lawmakers expressed disappointment in the outcome of Thursday's half-day summit at the White House.

[dipsydoodle]

1. You have almost complete freedom of choice.

Given that there are usually alternatives then nothing makes you buy anything made in China. If they were to revalue their currency and/or the US were to impose tariffs either or both of which should in theory increase prices it does not necessarily follow that consumers would find any changes. It may be well be that the corporates would simply take lower profits to sustain volume. Chances are that currently their profits are phenomenal.

I can provide a singular example from today when a new pair of Jack Purcells I picked on on ebay arrived in the mail. I'm assuming that notwithstanding the fact that they no longer manufacture in the USA that Converse remains an American company. Including mail they came out to about $75 which is roughly what they'd have cost here in the UK : that is IF I'd been able to find a green pair here which I doubt. Turned out, you guessed it, Made in China.

Maybe someone would like to suggest to me the comparative cost of made in the USA v. made in China. Given the choice I'd actually prefer they remained "all American" and would happily pay more for them being so.

If you wonder what on earth is special about Purcells - they've got completely flat soles so it's easy to bond chromed suede on them for dancing.

[jamesinca]

2. On the upside there is this....

He was basically introduced as the president of Taiwan and a person in the press group heckled him for a few minutes before the Secret Service stopped her. If nothing else a good time was had by all.