New York Times' Economix Blog, August 15, 2011

....The study, from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, estimates that of every dollar consumers spend on a product labeled “Made in China,” about 45 cents goes to China for the cost of the original import.

On the other hand, about 55 cents of that dollar pays for services produced in the United States, such as the transportation for the product, rent for the store where the product is sold, the salaries of the salespeople at the store, the cost of marketing the product, the profits for shareholders of the retailer selling the product and so on.

What’s more, the fraction of a retail product’s price going to American services is higher for Chinese-made products than for products made in other foreign countries....

....the San Francisco Fed’s study also looked into what share of total personal consumption expenditures in the United States goes to imported final goods (again, consumer products) and intermediate goods (parts).

The authors found that about 13.9 percent of all United States consumer spending goes to imports, including both final and intermediate goods. Chinese imports alone — including both final goods and intermediate goods from China — accounts for just 1.9 percent of total consumer spending.