General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Offshoring: Should America be impoverished in order to help other populations become better off? [View all]Sen. Walter Sobchak
(8,692 posts)China was required to cut their 24.6% general industrial tariff as a condition of entry into the WTO, this was negotiated by Clinton in 1997. In 2011 China's average tariff was 9.8% and the general industrial tariff is 8.9% and will fall dramatically next year as the tariffs on many goods are lowered to 4.4% and 0% for imports from the least developed states. China has met or exceeded all demands in regards to tariff reduction. Additionally as China is a signatory to the WTO ITA agreement (part of the Singapore Round) as is the United States many US exports to China are completely tariff free. Under the ITA China IMPORTS about 12% of the worldwide ITA products sold - this represents almost entirely US made semiconductors. China signing on to the WTO ITA agreement was another part of the deal negotiated by Clinton and for this very reason.
Since it appears you have located the WTO website, perhaps you should avail yourself of the resources on it before commenting further.
Free Trade isn't the problem, the problem was a thirty year leadership vacuum that saw the US cling to a low-productivity and low-value added industrial paradigm as the rest of the world leaped ahead. And when this system atrophied and collapsed it somehow became the fault of third world peasants working in factories. The unquestioning embrace of American exceptionalism made it impossible to even suggest that government and industry might have had it all wrong at the time.