Determining Causes and Effects Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Determining Causes and Effects - Essay Example Every since 2000, incidentally when China joined the WTO, the U.S. has been hit by manipulative Chinese policies which means that Chinese exports of auto parts have increased 900 percent and the U.S. is a major importer of these parts (See figure 1). The reason American automobile industries rely so heavily on the Chinese auto parts market is because the Chinese ones are much cheaper, plain and simple, a feat achieved by the Chinese central and local governments heavily subsidizing its industries for the past decade. These subsidies are direct and indirect such as low-cost or free land and infrastructure, below-cost industrial inputs such as steel and glass, and electricity provided at less than the cost of generation. Despite the fact that these subsidies have been declared illegal by the WTO (Anderson, 2012), China’s auto parts industry and consequently its balance of payments continue to thrive at the expense of the honest practice of their American counterparts. Another im portant factor in Chinese products appearing cheaper than American ones is that China is notorious for employing the most staunch currency manipulation policies so that its exports remain competitively prices as compared to American and European counterparts. This means that China artificially gives its currency a lower face value so that when converted they appear to be lower in terms of American dollars (or any other currency for that matter) and so their goods seem more appealing to the public. In fact, the disparity achieved by the artificially valued Renminbi is believed to be as much as 25 – 30%. That means Chinese exports appear 25 - 30% cheaper than they would have been otherwise in the global markets if these currency manipulations were not in place. Thus, many American businesses and industries rely on China (instead of their own local) auto parts industries. Figure 1 One other aspect involved in this tilting of the balance towards China is the fact that in China th e industries receive great support from many estates of the country. That is to say, in the auto industry, rare earth elements and provided to Chinese exporters and low cost and also, capital cost is also kept artificially low as investors and exporters are allowed to borrow from government-owned banks on sub-market rates, sometimes even given a waiver on their loans. Thus, their production cost is greatly reduced making them competitive in the foreign market. But China is not the only party to blame in this auto parts fiasco, a great part of the burden also goes on the American industries that instead of condemning, actively encourage and endorse the Chinese’ disregard of fair trade practices by purchasing Chinese imports. America and China are not the only countries with giant automobile industries; Germany, Japan, and South Korea also operate in this manufacturing niche. Seeing as Chinese manipulation and policies affect America so, it can be assumed that the other three c ountries and their balance of payments should be affected similarly, but that is not the case. In fact, Germany, Japan, and South Korea have trade surpluses with China as opposed to the heavy deficit that America has. This is because their governments have imposed laws and not operated on a completely blind free-trade practice with China, something America can take

Source Evaluations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Source Evaluations - Essay Example This increases the credibility of the writer. His broad experience in the field of medical sciences and general health-partitioning make it appropriate to carry out a credible research, which can be relied upon for informative purposes. Dr Gupta is also linked to several hospitals where he practices his medicine and neurosurgeon. Amongst his past experiences in broadcast journalism, Dr Sanjay Gupta covered the war of invasion in Iraq. While covering the Iraq war, he also got to practice medicine whereby he helped in treating the American soldiers and the Iraq civilians. His article on why he changed his perspective on the use of weed was published on the CNN website, which is a very reliable and reputable website. The article was published in the year 2013, August 9. In his article, Dr Sanjay Gupta acknowledges the fact that he has been wrong on his previous stand on the issue of the usage of weed. However, he has been very categorical in the reason why he changed his stand on the usage of marijuana. He cites several reasons and examples of people he has come across during his research. During his research on the usage of marijuana, he focused mostly on the medicinal aspect of the drug. The various people he came across during his study were all victims suffering from various disorders who had used prescribed drugs but there treatment only proved to get better after the use of weed. Dr Sanjay Gupta also proves to be quit reliable because of the scope and range of categories of sources of information that he covered during the research. He brings out several issues including the challenges he faced during his research process. This is very credible and reliable information that can be followed because they are from trusted sources. Dr. Sanjay Gupta also explains categorically why he has shifted his stand on the usage of marijuana. He has displayed in this article that the beliefs that most people carry and the ignorance misplaced on