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: Approximately 57 million American workers are currently employed by firms that engage in international trade. These firms tend to be more productive, have higher employment growth and pay their workers higher wages than domestically-oriented firms. Imports
International trade in goods and services exposes firms to foreign competition and reduces their ability to charge high markups above production costs. The average annual growth in U.S. import prices for the period 1990-2006 was just 1.4 percent compared to 3.1 percent for overall consumer prices. Exports
Firms engaged in the international marketplace tend to exhibit higher rates of productivity growth and pay higher wages and benefits to their workers than domestically-oriented firms. Wages paid by manufacturing plants that export are 9 percent higher on average than wages paid by non-exporting plants of the same size. And the wage premium for service-oriented firms that export is even higher--13 percent. U.S. exports to the ten most recent U.S. FTA partner countries -- FTA's implemented between 2001 and 2006 -- grew twice as fast as U.S. exports to the rest of the world (26 percent versus 13 percent). Exports accounted for approximately 30 percent of U.S. economic growth in 2006. All 50 states benefit from exports: