Foreign ownership concerns unlikely to change US policy

Every year the US Department of Commerce provides volumes of economic data. Much of the press follows figures on budget deficits or surpluses and indebtedness, whether a measure for the US or for foreign debt in developing countries. A little-followed measure is an accounting of assets, those US-owned assets abroad and those foreign-owned assets in the United States.

On 31 January 2008, the US Congressional Research Service released a report for members and committees of Congress on the US-international investment position. To no one’s surprise, the US is a net debtor nation.

Measure of net investment does not look at debt, rather, as stated above, it is a measure of net value of assets held. In 2006, the latest year of data, US-owned overseas assets totalled US$12 trillion, based on historical cost. The comparable measure of foreign owned assets in the US was US$14.8 trillion. Thus, the net investment position of the US was a negative $2.8 trillion. (Other measures such as current value, do not yield a significantly different result.)

Wayne Rogers is a senior adviser in the international law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, where he specializes in international trade and cross-border transactions. He may be reached at +1-202-408-6478 or wrogers@sonnenschein.com.