Title: Benefits of Trade with China
Headings: U.S. Department of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Press Center
Benefits of Trade with China

Content: It was $2.6 billion in 2005. Consumer goods, sporting equipment, apparel and footwear – relatively low value added consumer products – are among the U.S.'s top imports from China. High value-added manufacturing products are among top U.S. exports to China, such as electrical machinery and power generation equipment, medical instruments, plastics, aircraft, iron and steel, and agricultural products. China is often the last stop in the assembly process and thus the recorded import supplier to the United States. However, materials and components are often first imported into China from other Asian countries then assembled for export. Over 50 percent of China's goods exports are part of this global processing supply chain. U.S. industrial production (78 percent of which is manufactured goods) rose by 46 percent between 1994 and 2006. As the U.S. economy becomes increasingly globally integrated, the U.S. manufacturing base remains strong. While the U.S.'s manufacturing share of GDP is declining, America is still the world's number one manufacturer, accounting for more than 20 percent of worldwide manufacturing value-added – that's twice as much as Germany and more than 2.6 times as much as China. The U.S. manufactures more today than ever in its history – seven times as much real output as in 1950, with roughly the same number of workers as in 1950.