I have often been accused of viewing things in a simplistic manner. The thought has crossed my mind when shopping for an item like a refrigerator one made in Korea and one made in China which would be better to purchase. In my simple mind I think I should choose the one who trades more equally with the USA.
On this Sunday afternoon when we sit and watch football from 1:00pm until we go to bed I picked up the laptop and tried to find out what countries do we not only import goods but also export goods. I learned from the USA Census Bureau that for the month of August Canada was the country we traded with most (this includes imports and exports) with China coming in second. The entire list can be accessed at the Census Bureau Website.
Because the above list includes both exports and imports I looked a little deeper to find out who we had the largest trade deficit. Meaning who we import more than we export and not to my surprise I found that it was China who was over $150 billion dollars ahead of Japan in the number two spot. (access the full chart at the Census Bureau Website).
Let's look at my example of Korea vs. China. For Korea year to date (YTD)we have about an $8.5 Billion dollar deficit vs. China where we had $189 Billion dollar deficit. Yes we did export about $40 billion dollar more to China than Korea, but the percentages of export vs. import is so distorted that my personal opinion is that we did right by choosing the Korean refrigerator vs. the Chinese refrigerator.
My thought process might not be the same as yours, but at least I am thinking. Many might throw into the equation the countries political make-up, human rights policies, membership in the UN, NATO or participation NAFTA, etc, but I had to find a place to start and this is it. I am sure my thought process will change as I go along, but I know I will be references the Census website again.
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