Some statistics about America-india, America-China trade (dialupwarning: some pictures/graphs)

[Vehl]

Ive often run into quite a lot of comments/articles that imply that there is a huge trade imbalance between America, and India/China.

After doing some research, I realize that yes..there is quite a huge gap(or rather trade deficit) between America-China trade...but the America-India Trade deficit is very low...and if one looks at the bigger picture...its almost negligible.

Maybe a lot of doom and gloom articles should drop bunching India alongside China whenever it comes to Trade deficits because those two countries do not belong to the same category when it comes to trade deficits.

I'm of the belief that pictures are worth a thousand words...so...here are some graphs.

Data Source 1#:
census.gov
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/2009pr/final_revisions/exh13tl.pdf

Data Source 2#:
Bureau of Economic Analysis, US department of Commerce
http://www.bea.gov/international/bp_web/list.cfm?anon=1®istered=0


Ok..now the charts

1. Chart of 2009 US goods trade deficits:




2. Chart that compares 1992-2008 US services trade with all countries vs that with India:




3.Chart of US trade deficits (combined goods and services trade) with China, India, Africa and the rest of the world combined.





4. Table of 2008 US Direct Investment position abroad (data units: millions of USD):

From the table below, India's share of USDI: 16.1 bn/ 3,162 bn = 0.5% (50c for every $100 of US investments abroad)





5. Table of 2008 FDI flow into the US (data units: millions of USD):





Put together, these establish that the trade and economic relationship between the US and India is small, fairly balanced within that, and mutually beneficial.


graphs and info from :
http://iafn.blogspot.com/2010/07/us-india-trade-and-economic.html

Ergo people should not Bunch India and China together when it comes to US trade deficits/balance of trade....doing so would quite misleading.


ps: in the last two years alone, India signed ~15(with 10 more billion in the offing) billion worth of deals with American manufacturers(in the defense field alone)...which results in a lot of US manufacturing jobs. A big chunck of money India gains from its trade with America is pumped back into the US in the form of these deals.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4525296&mesg_id=4525965

[Turbineguy]

1. Interesting. Thanks!

What is amazing is that the country with the highest US investment is the Netherlands. Somewhat socialistic and highly regulated.

[Vehl]

2. yes, socialist democratic governments of europe seem to be outperforming everyone

in that region.

but hey...they are Commies to the teaparty blokes:P

[NoNothing]

3. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with one word:

OIL.

[Vehl]

4. Netherlands invests in American oil companies? nt

[NoNothing]

5. USDI is a measure of American investment abroad

I.e., the European country with the most American money invested. The second chart, the FDI, is foreign investments in the U.S.

[Vehl]

6. my bad

I had it reversed.
thanks :)