America is not Liberia's strategic partner. That was in the past. But we can regain that status if we learn how to strategically position ourselves. Liberia is only 7 hours by air to New York. 6 hours to Brussels and London. 5 hours to Recife Brazil. We could be the playground of America, Europe and South America and strategic trading and resource partners for those regions. But we lack a strategic plan. We have not articulated a grand strategy and put together an implementation model for stronger cooperation with the international trading system including the United States. Instead, we are dependent on the philanthropic largesse of the international system. We can change that.
At one time we were America's foremost strategic partner in Africa. Immediately after World War II. The Americans built our Free Port and only international airport. Liberia was the communications center for the CIA. We hosted defense and national intelligence operatives for the Americans. Pan Am flew here multiple times a week. We were the source of rubber and iron ore for Americas' steel and rubber industries. Firestone. BF Goodrich, Republic Steel. Bethlehem Steel. Workers in Akron and Pittsburgh depended upon us for cheap raw materials to quench America's thirst for steel and rubber products to fuel the growing consumerism in the automobile, electronics and appliance industries. We grew a small upper class who shopped from American catalogues. Sears Roebuck. Montgomery Ward. JC Penny. Liberia had a large trade surplus with the US and Europe. Thus we had a favorable balance of payments. The US dollar was our official currency. We had more than three months of import cover in our national reserves. The US needed us but we made little demands for equity.
My country is a client beggar nation with a parent-child relationship with the US. That positioning is encapsulated in the phrase that we are America's "stepchild." A nation that thinks of itself as a child more than 175 years of nationhood is clearly at the mercy of other nations. That's a tragedy because America needs Liberia if it is to make a successful push into Africa to offset the growing Chinese and Russian influence. More on that in this piece but let's examine our psyche after 175 years of nationhood.
Fear and paralysis characterize our relations with the United States, for two reasons. Some of us are corrupt and fear that America could use tools at its disposal to prevent us from entering the United States where all of us have friends and family. America is a place we go to validate ourselves. We return with our faux accents and ostentatious behavior. We are exhibiting the vestiges of slavery and the characteristics of the planation economy bequeathed to us by our forebears. We act as slaves on a plantation awaiting the validation of masters. The fact that we have 500,000 Liberians including their spouses, children and grandchildren in the United States provides an opportunity to elevate US-Liberian relations through positive actions such as political action committees, community organizations and the use of politicians to promote Liberia's interest, much like the America Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) or the Jamaican League.
In practical terms, Liberia can be a source of consumer products to the United States. Plastic products. Furniture and building materials from a wood processing industry. Bamboo furniture as from the Philippines. We can also provide the United States with coffee, cocoa and other agricultural products. Liberia can develop a gold and diamond products industry to serve the US consumer market. Diamond cutting factories. Jewelry manufacturing with gold contents. We can supply products to Walmart and other consumer outlets in the United States. Textiles. Best of all we can be a paradise for the rich, not so rich and middle class tourists from the United States. But instead we are America's 152nd largest trading partner on a list of 200 nations. Bottom of the list. In latest figures, total trade with the United States was 181 million dollars, with 114 million in American imports and a paltry 67 million dollars in Liberian exports. The US has a 47 million dollar trade surplus with Liberia. A shame since U'S exports include mostly used cars and consumer products like canned and packaged goods.
According to OEC, at the end of September 2022, China exported $693M and imported $3.64M from Liberia, resulting in a positive trade balance of $689M. Between September 2021 and September 2022 the exports of China have increased by $19.5M (2.89%) from $673M to $693M, while imports increased by $917k (33.7%) from $2.72M to $3.64M.
We can improve trade and overall development relations with the United States, but best of all we can serve as a bulwark to protect American national security interests in Africa to offset the growing Russian and Chinese influence as I stated from the outset. But it would require building a new model of engagement with the Americans. In exchange for our support, we need to be an example of American ingenuity and productivity. Our relationship with the US must be reflected in our economic growth and the quality of the lives of Liberians.
America proposes to spend 55 billion dollars in Africa over the next three years. What exactly are they spending that money on in Africa? Indeed, we need infrastructure, but the American cost structure to build infrastructure is not competitive to the Chinese due to labor rates in the US. China builds most infrastructure in Africa. Therefore, America needs to use its ingenuity to build an engagement model with Liberia that overcomes Chinese competitive advantage in infrastructure development. The United States must demonstrate that it can uplift five million Liberians out of poverty into middle income status over several years. That will be an example to other African countries that desire to improve relations with the United States. Clearly if Liberia's close relations with the United States in consanguinity and history cannot be rewarded with middle income status, instead of being among the fourth poorest nation on the planet, that is not an impetus for other African nations to forge closer relations. France does that very well in La Cote d'Ivoire and provides excellent security and economic opportunities for Ivorians. Proof. We are buying electricity from La Cote d'Ivoire. Cote d'Ivoire has the highest human development index in the Mano River Union. Cote d'Ivoire along with Ghana export more than 60 percent of global cocoa production.
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How can Liberia emerge out of the Africa Leaders Summit in Washington as a serious contender for US investment dollars? First let's leave the emotion out of the relationship and concentrate on competitive values and national security interests. On those two scores, if Liberia can prove that it is a good destination for American investments by decreasing impediments to FDI such as limited economic probity, and can elevate the relationship beyond parent child, then Liberia will regain its strategic value to the United States. But as long as Diaspora Africans disregard Liberia in favor of Ghana, which has strategically positioned itself as the premier destination for Diasporans, Liberia could remain America's stepchild for generations. Liberia must strategically position itself to be America's trading partner and global security ally. If we do not elevate the relationship from parent-child to equitable standards based upon economic and security interests, Liberia risks losing the advantages it holds in the new era of US strategic thrust in Africa. And so it goes.
