CHINA/EDUCATION/IMMIGRATION/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration’s proposed crackdown on China’s trade practices could hit one sector where the U.S. runs a big trade surplus: higher education.
The White House is considering limiting visas to Chinese students as part of a broad package of measures targeting Beijing, which the U.S. accuses of violating intellectual-property laws and other misdeeds. A White House official said the package, including tariffs, could be unveiled later this month. The U.S. has long run a large trade deficit in goods and services with China and the rest of the world. In the education industry, the U.S. runs a global trade surplus—in no small part due to China.
China sends more students to the U.S. than any other nation, accounting for roughly one-third of the 1.1 million international students enrolled at American universities in the 2016-2017 academic year. China has long valued access to U.S. colleges and universities, which consistently rank among the best in the world… Foreign students attending American educational institutions accounted for $39.4 billion in U.S. exports in 2016, Commerce Department data show. That figure mainly reflects the tuition students pay and excludes spending on many other goods and services, such as rent, clothing or food…
Reducing student visas would also likely hurt American students. International students have become a big source of cash for U.S. colleges, since they generally pay full tuition, with no discounts, Mr. Startz said. They often pay two or three times what American students pay at many public colleges. If colleges lose that income, they could be tempted to offset the losses by raising prices on American students, he said.”
-Josh Mitchell and Melissa Korn, “Targeting China, Trump Threatens Student Visas. That Would Hit a Big U.S. Export,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 16, 2018 05:30am