U.S. trade deficit with China rises for fifth straight month: AAM Statement

The latest monthly U.S. trade figures were released this morning by the Department of Commerce:

  • In July 2012, the U.S. racked up an international goods and services trade deficit of $42.0 billion.
  • The monthly goods deficit with China rose to $29.4 billion in July, up from $27.4 billion in June.  This is the fifth straight month of a rising trade deficit with China.

Said Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM):

"After five months of rising trade deficits with China, it’s time to face the facts: this trade relationship isn’t working.

"U.S. goods are highly competitive globally, but Chinese imports continue to surge into America. Our elected leaders in Congress and the White House are not doing enough to stop China from flaunting the rules. There’s a deep undercurrent of concern among American voters about the U.S.-China economic relationship, but Congress, President Obama, and Mitt Romney, don’t seem to fully grasp it."

There are several actions Congress and the Administration could take right now to create jobs in America and lower the trade deficit:

1. House Speaker John Boehner should permit a vote on bipartisan legislation that would deter China from manipulating its currency. This bill would pass overwhelmingly, as it did in the Senate last year.
2. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should designate China as a currency manipulator. While the value of China’s currency has risen somewhat against the dollar over the past year, it has stalled this year.  The yuan still has a long way to go to reach equilibrium, and has only kept pace with the rate of change of the dollar’s decline against other major currencies.
3. The Obama Administration should launch a series of self-initiated trade cases against surges of Chinese imports in key sectors such as auto parts.
4. The President’s export initiative should evolve from an exercise in doubling exports to a strategy that dramatically lowers our trade deficit, particularly in high-value and strategic sectors of the economy.
5. The President and Congress should work together to pass a “Made in America” agenda that promotes reshoring, investing in our infrastructure, training a skilled workforce, leveraging federal procurement to support U.S. industry, and targeting tax breaks to domestic production.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing is a non-profit, non-partisan partnership formed in 2007 by some of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers to explore common solutions to challenging public policy topics such as job creation, infrastructure investment, international trade, and global competitiveness. For more information, please visit www.americanmanufacturing.org.