Brendon ClairDr. Ruben BerriosEcon 355, International Trade and Finance, April 30, 2015Impact of China's Unfair Trade Practices on the U.S. EconomyInvestopedia defines unfair trade practices as "The use of various deceptive, fraudulent, or unethical methods to obtain business" (Investopedia). These methods include false advertising, tied selling and misrepresentation, as well as other illegal acts declared by law. Over the past decade, the American economy has experienced trouble. One of the major issues related to the problems of the last decade has been persistent trade deficits, most of them with China. This trade deficit causes higher unemployment than desired by the American population. Net exports exemplify the difference between China having very low labor costs compared to the US, but this is not the only or probably the main factor. “There is a complex range of unfair trading practices, all of which are illegal under free trade rules” (Navarro, Peter). Among China's many unfair trade practices, the most glaring is its abundance of export subsidies. The piracy of American technologies; the counterfeiting of brands such as Chevy or Nike; a cunningly manipulated and totally undervalued currency; and the mandatory delivery of any technology that an American company wishes to sell in Chinese markets. The Worth Trade Organization and the United States government prohibit each of these business practices. One example is the Treasury Department's sanctions against currency manipulation. In 2015, the IACC estimates the total value of counterfeit goods worldwide to be $1.77 trillion (Counterfeiting Statistics). This is extremely harmful to US manufacturers and causes US exports of these goods to decline significantly. China is not the only culprit, but it is rightly known for being a major player in the counterfeiting industry. In this example, we examined how unfair trade practices used by the Chinese are affecting the US trade deficit, which reduces GDP growth rates and causes the American economy to cause people to lose millions of jobs every year. These unfair trade practices include; counterfeit goods made in China devalue US goods, the Chinese government's manipulation of the yuan and US dollar, and the Chinese require US technologies to be showcased before they can be sold in Chinese markets. The result of all these unfair trade practices is increased exports from China to US markets and decreased US exports to