Codependency

An interesting view combining the US trade imbalance with China and its effect on the production of greenhouse gases, via TerraDaily:

The growth of Chinese imports in the U.S. economy boosted the total emissions of carbon dioxide (a primary greenhouse gas) from the two countries by over 700 million metric tons between 1997 and 2003, according to a study published online in the journal Energy Policy.

The analysis, prepared by two scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, suggests that American emissions of carbon dioxide in 2003 would have been 6% higher if the United States had manufactured the products that it imported from China. Meanwhile, China's 2003 emissions would have been 14 per cent lower had it not produced goods for the United States
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Because Chinese manufacturing relies heavily on coal and less-efficient technologies, it produces more greenhouse-gas emissions on average than the United States for a given product. Emissions in 2002 and 2003 rose at 8-9% a year in China and about 1% a year in the United States. If all of the U.S. imports from China had been produced domestically, then U.S. greenhouse emissions would have risen at 1.5% to 2% per year.

Altogether, the U.S.-China trade imbalance boosted the two nations' combined greenhouse-gas output from 1997 to 2003 by an estimated 720 million metric tons. That represents more than 1% of the two nations' total emissions of carbon dioxide in 1997–2003. The global total for the same period is close to 165 billion metric tons.

China and the United States are not parties to the Kyoto Protocol and are not bound by the protocol's limits on carbon dioxide. Shui and Harris believe that future global agreements should consider aspects of international trade. “For any trade issue, we should look at its multiple dimensions,” Shui says.