Export rebound in US 'no big threat to China'

The resurgent competitiveness of United States manufacturers appears to bolster that nation's position in the global export market and may reshape the world's trade map.
That is the view of a global consulting group. But experts said the strength of Chinese manufacturing exports is not necessarily being damaged despite the US' shrinking trade deficit on factory goods.
US exports have been growing more than seven times faster than the nation's gross domestic product since 2005. Exports are at their highest point in 50 years, according to the report by the Boston Consulting Group released on Wednesday.
The report suggests the US is steadily becoming one of the lowest-cost countries for manufacturing in the developed world, driven by the price of labor, natural gas and electricity.
BCG projects the US, as a result of its increasing competitiveness in manufacturing, will capture $70 billion to $115 billion in annual exports from other nations by the end of the decade.
By 2020, higher US exports, combined with production work that will likely be "reshored" from China, could create 2.5 million to 5 million US factory and service jobs associated with increased manufacturing, said the report.
Currently, China's once overwhelming production-cost advantage is eroding because of higher wages and other factors behind the slower economic growth.
However, it questions whether the reviving US manufacturing will dominate the manufacturing powerhouse China represents and change the China-US trade relationship in a short time.
The total China-US trade rose 5.6 percent to $244 billion in the first half of this year. China imports from the US amounted to $75.75 billion, up 15 percent from the same period in 2012, while China exports to the US were $168 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
China's trade surplus with the US declined 7 percent in the period compared with the first half of 2012.
Nonetheless, for the past several years, the US trade deficit with China has been significantly larger than that of any other US trading partner or trading group, according to a report released by the US Congressional Research Service.


Source: China Daily
Time: 2013-08-22