Story at Yahoo!.
The U.S. and China agreed to drop tariffs on about 200 different technologies, including semiconductor, medical tech equipment and GPS devices.
Translation: "Exports are a benefit, imports are a cost..."
Which they are if you are an officer of a firm that seeks to increase exports, not so much for the rest of us.
Total lack of control. This is a disaster in the making all this free trade thing.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Ignacio.
ReplyDeleteSemiconductors, medical devices, and GPS are KNOWLEDGE products. It takes a lot of know-how to design and manufacture them. The bulk of the cost of those products is in the knowledge (and in the fancy capital equipment, which is also mostly knowledge based). There's only a few pennies worth of materials in a semiconductor.
So it costs almost nothing to export knowledge products, once you are set up to manufacture them and have excess capacity.
Meanwhile, the US is losing knowledge jobs -- the kind of jobs the 99% would like to have more of.
If you are an engineer specializing in one of those fields and your job is outsourced, what are you supposed to do, pick up litter in a JG? How is this a benefit to society?
BTW, hi-tech industries are not labor intensive so the main incentive to move them offshore is to escape environmental and safety regulations. Race To The Bottom 101.