Chapter 5 > The Global Economy > Declining Concern About Economic Competition

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Declining Concern About Economic Competition

As Chapter 2 indicated, the public shows a low and declining level of concern about economic competition from other countries (see Figure 5-1). Only 29% see economic competition from Japan as a critical threat— down 16 points from 1998 and down a remarkable 33 points from 1994. Lower still is concern about economic competition from Europe, which only 13% see as a critical threat, as compared to 24% in 1998. Even competition from low wage countries is seen as a critical threat by only 31%, down 9 points from 1998.

Similarly, there is low and declining concern that other countries are practicing unfair trade (see Figure 5- 2). Just 20% think that the countries of the EU are practicing unfair trade (down from 24% in 1998), while 41% feel this way about Japan (down from 55%), 36% about Mexico, and 10% about Canada. Only China is now viewed by a majority as practicing unfair trade, with 53% feeling this way.

Accompanying reduced worries about economic competition and trade is declining concern about other aspects of the global economy. While 54% of Americans still regard safeguarding against global financial instability as a “very important” goal of U.S. foreign policy, when people are asked about the importance of financial crises in other countries as a threat to the vital interest of the United States, only 25% regard such crises as a critical threat. Alarm associated with the Asian financial crisis and other events of the 1990s has apparently faded from the public mind.

Reducing the U.S. trade deficit is seen as a very important goal by 51%, essentially unchanged from 1998, but down from highs around 60% in the 1986, 1990, and 1994 surveys. In 1998 the world economy and the balance of payments were the second and third most cited foreign policy problems facing the United States, mentioned by 11% and 10% of the public, respectively. In 2002 they are way down on the list, mentioned by only 3% and 2%, respectively.