U.S. candidates pass over tough China questions in final debate

WASHINGTON Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:24am EDT

1 of 2. U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney shake hands at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida October 22, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque




























(Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)

Comments (4)
Caspary wrote:
So Romney is not content on outsourcing American jobs to China. He now invests in Chinese companies some of which invest in Iran!! Disgraceful and un-American. I know where my vote will go.

Oct 23, 2012 7:43am EDT  --  Report as abuse
Pete_Murphy wrote:
There are several points that need to be made here:
1. Romney is exactly right when he says that we’re already in a trade war with China, and that China is winning.
2. Currency exchange rates have absolutely nothing to do with the balance of trade. An exhaustive study of exchange rates vs. balance of trade has found no relationship. The strengthening of another nation’s currency is no more likely to reduce our trade deficit than it is to worsen it. Two cases in point: (1) Since China’s yuan (renminbi) began strengthening several years ago (it’s now 30% stronger than in 2005), our trade deficit with China has dramatically worsened instead of improving. (2) Over the past three decades, the Japanese yen has appreciated by over 300%. Yet, instead of improving, our trade deficit with Japan exploded.
3. The article mentions the concept of a “level playing field.” It’s impossible for there to be a “level playing field” in trade between two nations grossly disparate in population density, as in the case of trade between the U.S. and China, Japan, Germany, S. Korea and a host of other badly overpopulated nations. The inverse relationship between per capita consumption and population density assures that the less densely populated nation (the U.S.) will be saddled with a large trade deficit while manufacturing jobs are shifted to the more densely populated one. The ONLY way to “level the playing field” in such a situation is through the use of tariffs.
4. We badly need an amendment to the constitution that would mandate a balance of trade and would forbid U.S. membership in any international organization that does not recognize the right of all nations to manage trade in their own best self-interests.

Pete Murphy
Author, “Five Short Blasts”

Oct 23, 2012 8:17am EDT  --  Report as abuse
ncshu2 wrote:
The capitalism system for profit, and globalizaiotn of world economies determines that the labour-intensifying manufacturing jobs in US will be shifted to the regions where the labour costs less. That certainly will result in job loss in the manufacturing sector of US. China is at the focus for its manufacturing capacity due to the size of its population. Sure, as a country of totalitarianism, the unfair trade practice by the Chinese government exacerbates the problem. But a level playing field would not fundamentally save labour-intensifying, manufacturing jobs in US due to the huge income disparity between ordinary American and Chinese. However, the political changes in China to make the society more equal, so more people could benefit from the economic development, may mollify the situation. If the children of the workers at assembly line in Shenzhen to produce iphone for Apple were at least ipod user, the trade imbalance would be less hard to swallow, as ordinary Chinese buy more from US. The current autocratic political system in China is a hinderance to that process.

One benefit of the globalization of the capitalism economies is that it has the effect to level off the living standard in different regions of the world. It has been proved by the development histories of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. In China the situation is different because its autocratic political system impedes the prosperity of its majority, thus prolongs the whole painful process for the both sides of the trade.

Oct 23, 2012 11:16am EDT  --  Report as abuse

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