While export volumes between China and the United States and Europe are currently down, Chinese manufacturers are looking for new markets, such as the Middle East.
Ben Simpfendorfer, who is the RBS Chief Economist in Hong Kong, is a veteran of both China and the Middle East and his new book, The New Silk Road, looks at how “the centre of the world’s economy is shifting east.”
Earlier this year, China became the major supplier of exported products to the Middle East, a rank the United States had claimed since the early 1960s.
The extraordinary element, Simpfendorfer notes, is that Chinese imports into the Middle East largely comprise low-cost manufactured items that some 200,000 Arab traders purchase on visits to manufacturing markets like Yiwu, in Zhejiang province, while the United States trade in the region is mostly in high-cost items, such as “SUVs and Boeings.”
The current “flood of Chinese exports into the Middle East” is not without future risks. Factory closures and increased unemployment across the Middle East are two noticeable ramifications. “If trade barriers aren’t raised [Syria, for example, has just raised tariffs on certain imported goods from China], then that brings the risk of social instability,” Simpfendorfer says.
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Chinese Exporters Look to the Middle East
While export volumes between China and the United States and Europe are currently down, Chinese manufacturers are looking for new markets, such as the Middle East.
Ben Simpfendorfer, who is the RBS Chief Economist in Hong Kong, is a veteran of both China and the Middle East and his new book, The New Silk Road, looks at how “the centre of the world’s economy is shifting east.”
Earlier this year, China became the major supplier of exported products to the Middle East, a rank the United States had claimed since the early 1960s.
The extraordinary element, Simpfendorfer notes, is that Chinese imports into the Middle East largely comprise low-cost manufactured items that some 200,000 Arab traders purchase on visits to manufacturing markets like Yiwu, in Zhejiang province, while the United States trade in the region is mostly in high-cost items, such as “SUVs and Boeings.”
The current “flood of Chinese exports into the Middle East” is not without future risks. Factory closures and increased unemployment across the Middle East are two noticeable ramifications. “If trade barriers aren’t raised [Syria, for example, has just raised tariffs on certain imported goods from China], then that brings the risk of social instability,” Simpfendorfer says.
Click here:
http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=350433
This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 6:04 am and is filed under News commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.