New from EPI:
U.S. INVESTMENT IN CHINA
WORSENS TRADE DEFICIT
U.S. firms build export-oriented
production base in China’s low-wage,
low labor-protection economy
by James Burke
. . .
" . . . Although in 1989 only 30% of imports from China
competed against goods produced in the high-wage
sector of the U.S. market, by 1999 that percentage
had risen to 50%. . . . "
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Lets see, US firms make the stuff in China then send it back duty free to
sell to US consumers [or anywhere else]; just what does trade deficit mean
in this circumstance? My guess is zilch. Isn't the whole point of free
trade to deconstruct political boundaries vis a vis the boundaries of
firms/commodity chains [assuming tariffs are taxes]? And wouldn't that
whole accounting convention be rendered meaningless if and when free trade
becomes triumphant?
It seems the question for the left is no longer [if it ever was] where, but
rather our far more important and older question of HOW is it made;
property/firm structure and ecological conditions of production take
precedence over Westphailian geographies.
Ian
