| Title: | The Digital way of working |
| Moderator: | QUARK::LIONEL ON |
| Created: | Fri Feb 14 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 5321 |
| Total number of notes: | 139771 |
Recently, much attention seems to have been paid here in the U.S. to our trade deficit. One question that occurred to was, "Is DEC a net importer or exporter by the U.S. Government's definition?" Then, I began to wonder what meaning the term trade deficit has for an international company. DEC has manufacturing plants in North America, Europe, and Asia and some systems assembled in the United States contain parts from any number of other plants. [Do we have any manufacturing plants in Australia, yet?] DEC's philosophy as an international company seems to be to move the manufacturing nearer the customer. Thus, even if 40% of DEC's sales were made outside of the U.S., those sales may not translate into an equal amount of exports. It seems to me that the ex- porting of goods from the U.S. to other countries would not be one of DEC's business goals. My final thought on the trade deficit was that it may no longer be an adequate measure. Focusing on one number certainly seems to provide a myopic view. I wonder what would happen to the trade deficit if the import of goods by American companies from their overseas operations were subtracted out of the deficit calculation? I'm sure Digital isn't the only U.S. corporation with plants in Taiwan and Hong Kong that supply sub-assemblies and finished products to their plants and warehouses in the U.S. and elsewhere. Has anyone heard of a method of viewing inter- national trade that differs from the present "deficit-focused" approach? Greg Opp
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 460.1 | what about exporting software? | VAXRT::WILLIAMS | Thu Feb 04 1988 14:26 | 10 | |
Consider taking a (say) $5 floppy disk and flipping some of the
bits on it, then sell it for 500DM (I guess that would still be
a profitable deal).
Sounds like a wonderful export.
I think we do some of that with operating system software and some
application programs.
/s/ Jim Williams
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| 460.2 | DEC & GSP | ZGOV05::DANIELWONG | Cogito Ergo Sum | Thu Feb 04 1988 19:14 | 33 |
I'm not a international-level business-person so the following
comments on international-level business may or may not be true.
>Thus, even if 40% of DEC's sales were made outside of the U.S.,
>those sales may not translate into an equal amount of exports.
>It seems to me that the exporting of goods from the U.S. to
>other countries would not be one of DEC's business goals.
The important thing is that the money goes back to DEC. DEC and
most other US based MNCs manufacture/do something in other countries
because it is primarily cheaper to do so. So DEC saves on cost
of production etc.; gets the thing at lower prices and can sell
it at lower prices or if DEC so desires, for larger profits.
I suppose I should start another topic but this is so in line
with the topic I had in mind, I hope Greg doesn't mind if I chip in.
Recently the GSP (General Scheme of Preference) or something like
that has been scrapped for imports from South Korea, Taiwan, Hong
Kong and Singapore. I know that DEC has plants in all three of
the latter countries. First question I'd like to pose is "Will
this directly affect DEC ?" Seems to me that if a 6-7% price increase
were slapped on all of DEC's imports, then someone somewhere had
better do some quick thinking. Second question is "How will this
affect DEC ?"
Third and last question I'd like to ask is "Does anybody seriously
believe that increasing manufacturing costs for US companies will
bring down the trade deficit ?"
Thanks and regards.
<DANIEL>
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