U.S. Outward Foreign Direct Investment's Role In U.S. Trade

摘要

The analysis proposes a fundamental change in measuring "national" economic performance by substituting capital control over these activities for the traditional view of geographic or political division as the determinant of national economies. Capital ownership of enterprises establishes their nationality regardless of their geographical location on the globe. In this case, America's foreign trade is "American " only to the extent that exports from U.S. shores are transacted by U.S.-owned companies. The same logic applies to the import side. The consequence of the newly defined, truly American trade is a strong, but consistently declining trade position by companies engaged in outward FDI operations. More noteworthy is their progressive contribution to the perennial trade deficits of the nation since 2001, a development that was not seen before that date. It may have something to do with the poorly defined fact, that officially American parent organizations are actually foreign-owned.