U.S. Exports Still Compete, Bergsten Says: U.S. Exports Still Compete, Bcrgsten Says
Despite a record U.S. trade deficit in 1977, American exporters havenÛªt suffered any ÛÏnoticeableÛ loss in price competitiveness compared with other major industrial countries, a high-ranking Treasury official said yesterday.</br></br>In fact, according lo Assistant Treasury Secretary C. Fred Bergsten, the decline in the value of the dollar last year and so far in 1978 has offset the decline in competitiveness caused by an over-valued dollar and inflated U.S. prices in 1974-75.</br></br>But he said that the rising industrial strength in a group of more advanced developing nations offers "increased competition for the United States and all other industrial countries which we must consider carefully in assessing our own competitive position now and in the future."</br></br>Impressive gains in both manufacturing capacity and in export shares have been registered by Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, llong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, and Malaysia, Bergsten said.</br></br>U. S. exports to these countries have also grown. Exports of manufactured goods to all less developed nations (excluding the oil-producing countries) now amount lo about 25 percent of all U.S. manufactured goods exports, or more than to the entire European Community, Bergsten pointed out.