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: 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: exports account for over 20 percent of manufacturing jobs in South Carolina and over 35 percent in Washington. Agricultural exports support nearly 400,000 jobs in the U.S. farm sector. The Role of Multinational Firms
International trade is an important channel of international commerce but it is not the largest channel. Many U.S. firms access foreign markets through foreign direct investment, and producing and selling abroad. U.S. firms deliver five times the value of services (and two and a half times the value of goods) through their foreign affiliates as they do through cross-border trade.