China Trade Still A Loser for US

American Economic Alert still gets it:

U.S. government trade data released today reflect that China's undervalued currency continues to take a toll on American jobs and the manufacturing sector, according to a coalition seeking an end to Chinese currency manipulation.

The Department of Commerce's latest economic indicators show that the bilateral trade deficit with China was $17.7 billion in July. "

These numbers clearly demonstrate that the annual bilateral trade deficit continues on its trajectory of reaching almost $210 billion in 2005, nearly a 30% increase over the previous high of $162 billion in 2004," said David A. Hartquist, spokesperson for the China Currency Coalition.

"The ever-increasing deficit with China will continue to hurt manufacturing until China stops subsidizing its currency," Hartquist continued. "U.S. workers should no longer have to shoulder the burden of China's export- led strategy."

The U.S. manufacturing sector continues to bear the brunt of China's undervalued currency, according to the Coalition. It points to Department of Labor statistics, which show that another 14,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in August alone, resulting in a cumulative decline for the last twelve months of 90,000 jobs.

Said Hartquist, "Since January 2001, 2.8 million manufacturing workers have lost their jobs, and there is no reason to expect this downward trend to change."

Ummmnnnhhhh...another way to put it: when the Feds spend roughly a $ Gazillion of Other People's Money on New Orleans, which country will provide all the beds, linens, dressers, TV's, VCR's, PC's, and underwear?

Hint: It Ain't the USA.

Remember that "promise" by the still-Communist "leader" of Red China about re-valuing the yuan? It has had the same force as, well, "Republican" leaders' promise to utilize fiscal prudence:

China claimed that the new currency regime would increase flexibility in the system by allowing the yuan to appreciate over time within certain bounds. If allowed to operate fully within that system, the exchange rate for the yuan already would have appreciated by 12% to a rate of approximately 7.3 yuan per dollar. However, since the July appreciation, China has kept its exchange rate for the yuan at a stable 8.09 yuan per dollar, belying Chinese assertions that the new exchange rate mechanism would reflect market conditions.

(Figures and more info: http://www.chinacurrencycoalition.org/ )