Lets see now high tariffs by China on US goods. Artificial pegging of the Yuan, Non tariff barriers to US goods See the threads of a couple weeks ago regarding Harley Davidson being unable to sell its large motorcycles in China yet without teh Chinese market they have captured 20% of the world market for these large motorcycles. And I haven't even gone into the technology demands on companies "investing" in China.
These are legitimate issues not "scapegoating." Either you were unaware of them in which case I recommend a perusal of the trade issue threads over the past months here on Free Republic so you are more informed, or you are intentionally trying to mislead in which case I recommend you realize taht you will be called on that and exposed. The other problem is that if you can name a country in the world that does not manipulate it's currency to achieve some trade goal, I would like to know it.
Absolutely every country that allows its currency to "float" on the international market.
Since you can't know how vast is the actual portion of China's exports to the U.S., your attempts to minimize and trivialize the "scapegoating China" don't fly. Especially with the numbers you use which, on their face, are three years out of date. For instance, from AP's report from the Commerce Dept. last month on January's trade figures:
U.S. trade deficit soars to $58.3 billion Record imports in January for consumer goods, cars
The Associated Press, Updated: 8:48 a.m. ET March 11, 2005
For all of last year, the U.S. trade gap surged by 24.3 percent to $617.1 billion, setting a record for the third straight year. Analysts believe that 2005 will also set a record, reflecting higher prices for imported oil and continued heavy demand by U.S. consumers for all things foreign.
The January deficit reflected a 0.4 percent rise in exports of goods and services, however, imports rose at an even faster pace of 1.9 percent in January, climbing to an all-time high of $159.1 billion. Imports of foreign cars and auto parts and consumer goods set records while imports of capital goods, everything from computers to airplanes, rose to the highest level in more than four years.
As usual, the largest deficit with a single country was recorded with China, an imbalance of $15.3 billion, the third biggest imbalance on record and up 7 percent from December. The January deficit with China was driven by a 33.6 percent surge in shipments of textiles, which rose to $1.05 billion, reflecting the elimination of global quotas.
The struggling U.S. textile industry fears that the lifting of these restraints will result in the loss of thousands more U.S. jobs and result in China dominating the global textile trade. U.S. manufacturers are asking the administration for increased protection against a surge in Chinese imports.
Critics point to the huge trade deficits as evidence that President Bush’s trade policies are not working and have cost America millions of lost jobs as U.S. manufacturing companies have moved production abroad to low-wage countries such as China.
COMMENT: The upshot of these numbers is that China is on track to exceed a net annual direct trade surplus with the U.S. of $183.6 billion this year. The Chinese themselves forecast it (the trade imbalance) will grow to $400 billion in the next 3 years. When their share of the other importers manufacturing content is adjusted, let's say, to at least a modest 40% of their content, then we are truly witnessing a titanic share of the deficit problem as one that can be identified as a Chinese-specific issue. Your attempt to trivialize it as in the $50-100 billion margin frankly stinks.