Jan 21st 2012 | from the print edition

AMERICA'S trade deficit with China hit another record last year. Estimated at almost $300 billion, it made up over 40% of America's total deficit. Yet official data grossly overstate US imports from China.

Take the iPad, which America imports from China even though it is entirely designed and owned by Apple, an American company. iPads are assembled in Chinese factories owned by Foxconn, a Taiwanese firm, largely from parts produced outside China. According to a study by the Personal Computing Industry Centre, each iPad sold in America adds $275, the total production cost, to America's trade deficit with China, yet the value...