Trade Patterns Between U.S. and

¶ … trade patterns between U.S. And China In analyzing the trade patterns between the United States and China throughout the years, it is inevitable that the study would also delve into the history of China as a government, particularly as a political and economic power in the Asian region. The history of trade between the two countries can be best traced through three periods in history, which may also be identified as the three phases that China took in establishing and developing trade relations with the United States.

The first phase involves early trade relations between the two countries in the first century AD, a period wherein the barter system was in operation. During this period, U.S. has yet to be known as an independent nation, and was simply referred to as the Americas. Trade between China and the Americas simply involved the exchange of essential goods that each country had -- China with its supply of silk, gun powder, and porcelain, and the Americas with its staple foodstuffs.

In this phase, trade was in its crudest form, and would be hampered with the increasing level of isolation that China had imposed upon itself through the coming years. Thus, after the first phase, trade relations between the two countries lagged, and eventually became non-existent, especially with the development of China in the early- and mid-20th century as a Communist country. The second phase of the trade relationship between U.S. And China came after the collapse of the Socialist experiment in Asia.

China, succumbing to the Modernist Project that was formulated by the U.S., gradually opened its doors to the free market, albeit with cautiousness and limited access only. At this phase, state-owned enterprises and businesses were sold off to private businessmen and investors. The receptiveness of the country towards trade was also influenced by the changing ties that U.S.

had with other countries, such as China's enemy, the Soviet Union, who was also gradually opening up to the free market, even going so far as to establish economic relations with the United States. Thus, with this trend among Asian and former Communist countries, China re-established its political ties with the U.S., which inevitably meant there will be more opportunities for each country to conduct economic transactions -- primarily, trade and exchange of goods, merchandise, and in China's case, labor (Worden and Dolan, 1987).

It must be noted that during the second phase, China had been primarily a supplier of natural resources or raw materials to the U.S., mainly because it had been an agricultural society, an economic system supported by the state during the reign of the Communist party system. Thus, while U.S. provided China with the materials and machinery, building large warehouses and factories for the manufacture of technological merchandise, China had supplied America with human labor and raw materials.

In addition to these, the country had also supplied U.S. with the land from which these manufacturing warehouses and factories were to be built. Inevitably, with the establishment of manufacturing companies in China, it had slowly developed and became known as one of the primary producers of technological products and merchandise -- that is, mass production of technological merchandise.

China was pitted against its other Asian neighbors, especially Korea, when it comes to manufacturing (since Japan was known as the cradle of technological invention and innovation and not so much for manufacturing technological products and materials. The third phase involves the integration of China into the world market. With the U.S. As its primary investor, China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the onset of the 21st century.

The country continued its role as provider of foodstuffs to America, especially agricultural products such as edible meat, vegetables, oil seeds, sugar, cocoa, nuts, and tobacco substitutes (McMillion, 2000). Meanwhile, U.S. had provided support in the development of China's agricultural technology as part of its agreement in establishing trade relations with the country. These support services include the provision of technical expertise in the cultivation, protection, and distribution of farm products, research on plant technology, genetic engineering, genetic breeding, and transgenic crops.

Transitions within the four-year period of trade relations between U.S. And China shifted once again to its state during the 1980s. Apart from being a supplier of agricultural products and information concerning agricultural technology, China is now being 'groomed' as the technology capital of Asia, where U.S. investors on computer and Internet technologies are heavily investing on the establishment of manufacturing companies. One of China's assets, apart from the availability of land in which to manufacture.