Free-trade skeptic Alan Tonelson is a sharp guy, and you always know where he stands on matters related to U.S. foreign trade policy. He's presented an interesting list (LINKED HERE) of "products" that represent the highest value U.S. exports. He's making a point about something that has intrigued me for several months — i.e., whether or not our devalued U.S. currency commutes into a net gain for manufacturing because it makes imported goods more expensive, and it makes U.S. exports more affordable to foreign buyers.

When the dollar tanked last September, a lot of manufacturers saw it as a new opportunity to improve their export potential. Well, Tonelson isn't addressing whether or not U.S. manufacturers are gaining because imports are more expensive; but his list of U.S. exports is useful. His point is that these exports don't enhance our manufactuirng businesses too much.

One item on the list, "waste/scrap," is part of a much broader and more complicated subject — the fact that the low-cost manufacturing nations like China and India have no domestic scrap processing and trading infrastructures, or at least none that are sufficient to serve their metal producing activity. So, China and India import a lot of scrap metal. And, a lot of that scrap metal comes from the U.S. (This is part of the explanation for Nucor Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. paying billions of dollars in recent months to buy their scrap-processing sources.)

I suspect that all of the items on the list have similarly complex backstories. "Nonferrous ores," for example, undoubtedly are increasing in value because of the global raw materials demand. And, "turbines and turbine generator sets" represent an important segment of the basic manufacturing economy, and I wouldn't gainsay the benefits of exporting more of its products.

In any case, my curiosity about the rising competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers thanks to the devalued dollar is still not resolved.  I think the U.S. Treasury Dept. should be doing much more to stabilize and support the dollar, for lots of reasons, but I'm not convinced that this list refutes the "pro-competitiveness" argument.