Posted on 11/26/2003 2:23:22 PM PST by em2vn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on TaipeiTimes http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2003/11/26/2003077281 TVs the latest target in US-China trade dispute
ECONOMICS: First it was bras, now it's televisions. Stoking fears of a trade war between the first and fifth biggest traders, the US is targeting TV imports
REUTERS , WASHINGTON ANDHONG KONG Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003,Page 1 The US accused Chinese companies of dumping televisions on the US market and slapped stiff duties on the products in the latest flare-up in trade tension between the two economic giants.
The US Commerce Department ruled on Monday that televisions from four Chinese firms were being sold in the US at less than fair value and announced provisional anti-dumping duties of 28 percent to 46 percent on the sets.
The ruling follows a US decision last week to limit imports of some Chinese textiles and added to tension between the world's biggest and fifth biggest trading nations, fanning fears in Asia that the US was growing more protectionist.
US television makers and unions complained that imports from China and Malaysia had mushroomed to 2.65 million sets a year last year from 210,000 two years earlier. No ruling was made on Malaysian televisions.
"Dumping can seriously injure or destroy an entire industry," Tom Hopson, the president of Tennessee television maker Five Rivers Electronic Innovations, said in a statement.
"US workers lose jobs when employers are forced to compete with unfair imports, which pressure US manufacturers to lower prices in what is typically a futile attempt to maintain market share," he said.
Booming Chinese factories have become important suppliers to major US retailers such as Wal-Mart, boosting the US trade deficit with China to a record US$103 billion last year.
US officials have pushed China to increase the value of its yuan, to take pressure off US manufacturers who blame Chinese competition for the loss of millions of jobs.
Some analysts say they expect a series of trade skirmishes with China ahead of US elections late next year. President George W. Bush's re-election bid could be determined by a clutch of manufacturing states.
Other US industries -- including iron pipe and bedroom furniture makers -- have also sought protection under anti-dumping laws.
Copyright © 1999-2003 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
And all the IT jobs are going to India. </sarcasm>
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
By Lawrence Kudlow
Published November 26, 2003 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Far-away terrorism and some low-intensity trade disputes have temporarily stalled the stock market. But is the fledgling Bush boom coming unglued? Even when things look a bit ragged around the edges, there is still no reason to doubt the market, the economy, or the political prospects for President Bush's re-election. Critics beware.
Currency mavens may rant and rave over trade deficits, but these phony and opaque numbers have nothing to do with currency value. The United States has strong political leadership, a strong foreign policy and strong economic growth. You want to buy yen or euros? Go ahead. It's a free country. But it's a sucker's bet. Buy dollars.
In fact, the cheapest currency in the world right now is the U.S. dollar. Watch the greenback strengthen significantly in the years ahead. High after-tax investment returns, breathtaking productivity gains, totally awesome profitability, virtually no inflation and historically low interest rates tell this tale. So do falling unemployment claims and rebounding manufacturing indexes. A University of Michigan think tank just predicted a 5.4 percent unemployment rate for 2004, a 4.8 percent rate for 2005 and 5.2 million new jobs over the next two years.
Of course, inflation worriers point to today's high gold price (gold is a proven inflation metric). But gold, now near $400 an ounce, is $50 too high. Money is not all that loose: The Federal Reserve is in a mild excess-reserve position, exactly where it should be as we turn from deflationary recession to reflationary recovery.
Today's gold rebound is driven by a combination of monetary reflation, huge commercial demands from China and a terrorist-related risk premium. But none of these are inflationary -- at least not significantly. Commodity indexes, meanwhile, are about where they were in 1996-97, when inflation was 2 percent or slightly less. The current inflation rate for consumers and producers is even less than that.
In short, there is not too much money out there. Supply-side guru Art Laffer opined recently that U.S. money is actually relatively restrained. Growth of the U.S. monetary base and the measure known as MZM (money at zero maturity) are about 6 percent, a modest rate that shows non-inflationary balance between cash supplied by the Fed and cash demanded by the economy.
Meanwhile, economic profits are rising about 25 percent, and productivity is ranging around 4 percent. These are awesome numbers for business expansion and efficiency. Along with a 35 percent rise in the S&P stock market since the mother of all bottoms on Oct. 9, it's clear that the investment and business bust is over. We are on the front end of an eight-to-10-year boom.
Members of the investor class should keep their eyes on the fundamental story. Low interest rates and rising earnings are still signaling a roaring bull market. Expected profits suggest that the stock market is at least 20 percent undervalued. A Dow Jones index over 11,000 is not out of the question for next year.
But again, no situation is ever perfect. The Bush administration's protectionist stance on trade is wacky. The steel tariffs were stupid, although they'll hopefully be repealed in the next few weeks. New import quotas on Chinese lingerie are more than stupid -- they are an embarrassment. But there will be no global trade war. Mischief-makers in the Commerce Department will be stopped well before the water's edge.
And in Mr. Laffer's words, reducing high marginal tax rates on dividends, capital gains and top personal incomes, and business depreciation bonuses are much more important than low-grade trade disputes. These supply-side measures jolted the economy into true recovery.
Democratic pessimists on the campaign trail will get nowhere with the American people next year. The nine tax-hiking Mondales would wreck recovery. The anti-war McGovernites would undercut our domestic security and our international credibility. The president will stay the course in Iraq primarily to protect American safety -- and the United States will prevail.
With the economic winds at his back, and a steadfast no-cut-and-run policy in Iraq and other places where terror thrives, President Bush will retain the confidence of the American electorate. If the Democrats had learned from Harry Truman and John Kennedy, they might have made it a real horse race. But they opted for the McGovern-Mondale model: an election-year loser. Mr. Bush should win next November with 42 states or more. And his coattails will increase legislative majorities in the Senate and the House.
Hopefully, in Mr. Bush's second term we will see some serious budget restraint and a better trade policy: We should grow our exports, not erect barricades against imports. Personal Social Security accounts, new super-saver plans for retirement, health and education, and thorough-going tax reform should also be on the post-election agenda.
Leave pessimism to the traditional old-media outlets. It doesn't matter what they preach. This country is in good shape.
Lawrence Kudlow is a nationally syndicated columnist and is CEO of Kudlow & Co., LLC, and CNBC's economics commentator.
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