Whenever the trade rhetoric heats up, it helps to keep things in perspective. If you stick with US and EU press accounts of the trade relationship with China, you'd think that SOEs have taken over all the export industries and are acting as currency vaccuums, fleecing foreigners of their hard-earned cash and exacerbating global imbalances.

To some extent, maybe. On the other hand:

Foreign-funded enterprises in China exported $494.4 billion worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products in 2009.

[ . . . ]

China exported $1.2 trillion worth of products last year[.]

I'm not a math guy, but it looks like those FIE exports of just those products alone make up greater than 2/3 of China's exports by value. It would be even more interesting to see what that number looks like if you take out things like commodities/raw materials and add all other FIE exports. FYI, total exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products in 2009 were $713.1 billion.

During a period when many in the West believe that China is breaking trade laws frequently as a matter of national industrial policy, it's useful to remember that foreign companies are still a significant, and important, part of this economy.

These numbers are snapshots and therefore say nothing about trends and the effectiveness of current policies. Even if a super-secret government cabal had implemented a "Let's go after all FIEs" plan in 2009, these numbers wouldn't illuminate that trend.

I do, however, believe that these numbers would surprise some people in D.C. and Brussels who tend to focus much more on domestic firms that compete with Chinese imports than those who maintain FIEs and have a direct stake in those imports.

Tags: China Business & Economy, International Trade

© Stan for China Hearsay, 2010. |
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