“Legislation that would increase tariffs on imports from China is unlikely to create any incentive for China to move expeditiously to modify its exchange policies. Rather, it would likely have the opposite effect and result in retaliation against U.S. exports into China.”-USCBC statement

The latest numbers show that not only does China hold the most U.S. bonds of any other foreign country, but China is also the biggest buyer of U.S. products!

According to the United States China Business Council (USCBC), which represents U.S. companies doing business with China, there was a U.S. $76 billion increase in U.S. products sold to China between 2000 and 2010!  So maybe we need to rethink the growing desire to slap large tariffs on Chinese products?

The USCBC also points out that even if Chinese made products stopped flowing into the U.S. it would not mean a return of U.S. jobs: “Much of what we import from China replaces imports from other countries, not products we make in the U.S. today.”-Erin Ennis, USCBC

So the United States finds itself in a conundrum: U.S. corporations love to ship off U.S. jobs to China.  China holds a lot of U.S. government debt.  China buys the most U.S. made products of any other country.  China is in a real good position to really hurt the United States economically if the U.S. government does anything to reduce Chinese made products coming in, or to reduce U.S. corporations from shipping off more jobs.  Sounds to me like this is proof of the short sightedness of our corporate and government leaders!