美国奥运队服中国制造真的重要吗?

In a perfect world, here's what Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. John Boehner might have said when confronted last week with the revelation that China stitches together U.S. Olympic uniforms:

如果是在完美的世界里，参议院多数党领袖里德(Harry Reid)和众议院议长博纳(John Boehner)上周发现美国奥运代表团队服乃“中国制造”这一情况时可能会这样说：

'Small potatoes. Call us back after we've fixed the deficit, the economy, Iran, and our real problems with China.'

相关报道小事一桩。等我们解决了预算赤字、经济低迷、伊朗问题以及我们和中国间真正的问题之后再来讨论这事。

But no such luck. Democrat Reid said we should 'burn' the clothes. Republican Boehner said, 'They should have known better.' Several senators this week spent their time, and the public's money, introducing the 'Team USA Made in America Act,' which would require that future Olympic uniforms be made─guess where.

但我们没有这样的运气。民主党人里德说，我们应该“烧掉”这些队服。共和党人博纳则说，他们早该知道不应这么干。本周多位参议员花了大把时间和纳税人的钱试图引入一项法案：《奥运队服美国生产法案》。这项法案将规定，今后美国代表团的奥运队服必须由美国制造。

Election seasons often bend sensibility, and this year is no different. Populism gets votes. It also distracts from tackling the big China issues that actually matter to U.S. business: protection of intellectual-property rights, market access, forced transfer of U.S. technology to China, and the ability of China's state-owned enterprises to crush competitors. These days that agenda is largely on the back burner.

在大选季，敏感性问题常常会被扭曲，今年也不例外。民粹主义总是能赢得选票。这同时也分散了我们的精力，令我们无暇顾及那些对美国商界来说真正重要的“中国问题”：保护知识产权；市场准入；强迫美国将技术转移至中国；中国国有企业具有的压垮竞争对手的能力。最近这些问题反而大都退居次要位置。

Says an executive with a U.S. manufacturer that has operations in China: 'The comments reflect either a lack of understanding of comparative advantage and how trade works (the Chinese are really good at producing low-cost uniforms, the U.S. is really good at innovative technology and advanced manufacturing-which would you rather be?), or cynical politics. More likely both.' He doesn't want to be named and get his company in trouble with the politicians.

各国2012奥运队服一览一家在中国有生产业务的美国制造企业的高管说，这些言论要么反映出说话人不了解比较优势理论以及国际贸易的运行机制（中国人非常善于生产低成本的服装，美国人的优势则在于技术创新和先进制造业──难道你希望情况反过来吗？），要么就是一种愤世嫉俗的政治观点，很有可能两种情形都存在。这位企业负责人不愿具名，他不愿有政客来找自己公司的麻烦。

It's 'grandstanding,' says another manager with a tech multinational. 'There are far more important bilateral business and trade issues for both countries.'

另一家高科技跨国企业的经理说，这种言论无非是为了哗众取宠，对中美两国来说，还有很多重要得多的双边经贸问题值得关注。

The flap over the uniforms has a lot to do with America's fraught relations with China-a sense that the U.S. is losing the race to this commercial juggernaut. Ask the average man on the street what percentage of what we buy in the U.S. is made in China-including those Olympic uniforms-and you'll probably get estimates well into the double digits.

美国议员在队服问题上的焦虑其实和中美关系存在种种问题有很大关系。美国人觉得，在这场试图主宰商业世界的竞争中，美国输给了中国。问问大街上一个普通美国人，我们在美国购买的商品中，“中国制造”占比多大（包括那些奥运队服）？你得到的估计比例很可能是两位数。

And yet researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco calculate that in 2010 goods labeled 'Made in China' accounted for just 2.7% of U.S. personal-consumption expenditures on goods and services-all the things we buy in a given year, from cars to clothing to health care. (Services account for about two-thirds of our spending and are chiefly produced locally.)

但旧金山联邦储备银行(Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)的研究人员计算后发现，2010年，标有“中国制造”的商品在美国商品和服务的个人消费支出中占比仅为2.7%，这里的“商品和服务”包括了我们在一年中所购买的所有东西，从汽车到衣服再到医疗保健。（在我们的支出中，服务占比约为三分之二，主要由美国国内机构提供的。）

U.S. businesses transport, sell and market those Chinese goods. Strip that value out, and the percentage attributed to the actual cost of Chinese imports drops to just 1.2%. Products that are made in America also sometimes include made-in-China components. But when the researchers added those components into their calculations, the final figure inched up to just 1.9%.

美国企业负责运输、销售和推广这些中国商品。剔除这部分价值，美国进口自中国的商品的实际成本在美国民众消费支出中的占比降至仅1.2%。就算是那些标着“美国制造”的商品有时也包含中国制造的零部件。但当研究人员将这些零部件价值也计算在内后，最终占比仅升至1.9%。

'Although globalization is widely recognized these days, the U.S. economy actually remains relatively closed,' the researchers said in their report. 'The vast majority of goods and services sold in the U.S. is produced here.'

报告说，虽然全球化如今已是普遍公认的事实，但美国经济实际上仍然是相对封闭的，美国市场上销售的绝大多数产品和服务都产自国内。

Ralph Lauren, which designed the U.S. Olympic uniforms, won't say what factory in China has the work. Kersten Zhang in the Journal's Beijing bureau says one company making clothes for Ralph Lauren is Hong Kong-based Luen Thai, which has operations in southern China. Just this one company makes millions of garments and accessories a year for several American and global retailers.

设计美国奥运队服的拉尔夫•劳伦公司(Ralph Lauren)拒绝透露是哪家中国工厂拿到了服装生产业务。《华尔街日报》北京分社的张永静(Kersten Zhang)说，为拉尔夫•劳伦生产服装的公司之一是香港的联泰控股(Luen Thai)，该公司在华南地区有营业机构。仅这一家公司每年就为数家美国零售商和全球零售商生产数百万的服装和配饰。

China can clearly make clothes and Olympic uniforms more cheaply than we do in the U.S. That said, Ralph Lauren used employees in America to design the uniforms. And if the San Francisco Fed's calculations are correct, more than half of the value of any public sale in the U.S. of the made-in-China clothes will flow to American companies.

中国肯定能够以低于美国的成本生产服装和奥运会队服。不过拉尔夫•劳伦是让美国的员工来设计队服的。如果旧金山联邦储备银行的计算准确，那么中国产服装在美国的零售额中，就有一半以上将流入美国公司的腰包。

'Across the business community there's a recognition that we need to talk about trade in a more sophisticated way-that global value chains can't be boiled down to three words: 'Made in China' or 'Made in America,'' says John Murphy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

美国商会(U.S. Chamber of Commerce)的墨菲(John Murphy)说，整个商界有一个认识，即我们需要用一种更加成熟的方式讨论贸易问题：全球价值链不能归结为“中国制造”或“美国制造”这样简单的词语。

'I think the debate reflects the current economic and unemployment concerns' in the U.S., adds John Frisbie, head of the U.S.-China Business Council.

美中贸易全国委员会(U.S.-China Business Council)会长傅强恩(John Frisbie)说，我认为这场讨论反映了美国人当前对经济和失业问题的关切。

Castigating foreigners during election cycles and economic downturns is familiar sport in America. Bill Clinton famously campaigned against the 'butchers of Beijing' when he ran for president. But once elected he championed China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

大选年和经济低迷期斥责外国人，在美国是一种常见的游戏。众所周知，克林顿(Bill Clinton)在竞选总统时就曾抨击“北京屠夫”。但在当选之后，他又表态支持中国加入世界贸易组织(World Trade Organization)。

We're seeing this dynamic again now. Mitt Romney has a 'Confront China' policy and says he'll declare China a currency manipulator if he's elected president. Barack Obama recently announced tariffs on certain Chinese goods. Meanwhile, there's little movement on the more complex issues.

现在我们又看到了这种现象。罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)有一套“与中国针锋相对”(Confront China)的政策，表示他如果当选总统，就会将中国定性为汇率操纵国。奥巴马(Barack Obama)最近宣布对某些中国货物施以惩罚性关税。与此同时，那些更复杂的议题却少有进展。

'The relationship at this point is a bit stalled,' says Charlene Barshefsky, the chief U.S. trade negotiator in the Clinton administration and now in the trade practice at WilmerHale. 'On the trade side there isn't an enormous amount of genuine activity going on.'

曾在克林顿政府担任美国贸易代表、目前在律师事务所WilmerHale从事贸易事务的巴尔舍夫斯基(Charlene Barshefsky)说，当前美中关系有些停滞；在贸易领域真心诚意的交流活动不多。

That will change after the U.S. elections and the leadership transition now under way in China, she believes. 'Both countries will go back to trying to find elements over which they can cooperate. That's been the pattern over the last 30 years.'

她相信，在美国大选、以及中国目前正在进行的领导层换届完成之后，这一情况将会改变。她说，两国都会重新寻找能够合作的领域；过去30年一直就是这么一个情况。

This assumes, of course, that America can get past the critical issue of who should sew our Olympic duds.

当然这有一个前提，那就是美国能够想通本国奥运队服应由谁来缝制这个关键的问题。