50 LOST OPPORTUNITIES Commerce Department’s state-level review of supposed gains from China trade betrays hollowness of claims of PNTR proponents
" . . . The Commerce Department claims its 50 state reports “go beyond traditional static analysis of a state’s trade with China.” In fact, the reports go beyond traditional statistical analysis. They offer no statistics at all about how much they predict exports to China will increase – state-by-state or even nationally. Instead, we have “State Export Profiles”: a few scant paragraphs of basic information, such as how much the state exports to China and where China ranks among the state’s major export destinations. These are followed by “Sector Snapshots,” which supposedly tell how the leading industries in each state will benefit from more trade with China. But the “snapshots” are, with only a few exceptions, virtually the same for every state. The same paragraphs appear over and over again. How interesting that the U.S. Commerce Department seems to believe that the economies of California and Massachusetts are pretty much the same, and that no business in either state competes with Chinese imports. . . . "
N.B. There is no truth to the rumor that BDL contributed to the DoC analysis.
mbs