Great Wall of China

The idea in the cartoon is to show that goods made in China are so cheap that the price acts like a wall, or barrier, to trade.  The barrier hurts US jobs, especially in manufacturing.  Besides the usual barriers to trade that we study in economics, are there others so subtle that consumers would be unaware?

Many countries require documentation so voluminous that country's refuse to trade with them.  In some countries there is as much as 100 pages of documents that need to be in the correct font and size or the imported merchandise will be confiscated.  With that much documentation, it would not be hard for imports to be delayed or discouraged.  Some of the documentation is: certificate of origin, invoice, shipper's export declaration, shipper's letter of instruction, and Incoterms.  How many firms want to complete that much documentation?

Another barrier that is often overlooked are the cozy relationships between buyers and sellers.  After establishing a relationship it's hard to switch suppliers.  I think this is like switching to an Apple computer from A Windows-based computer. 

For the sedulous reader, it should be noted that China requires the least documentation. (Contemporary Logistics, Murphy and Wood, 10th ed., 2011, page269.)