Why do americans buy foreign goods?

Americans buy foreign goods because it is cheaper for companies to make their goods overseas where they can pay employees less and are not required to protect their employees. This also makes them able to sell things to us cheaper than they would if the goods were made here. Also if the companies have factories overseas then they can get out of American taxes. 

 Virtually all of Southeast Asia lies between the tropics, and so there are ... Southeast Asia became a meeting place for trade between India and China

Explanation: A remarkable feature of Southeast Asia is the different ways people have adapted to local environments. In premodern times many nomadic groups lived permanently in small boats and were known as orang laut, or sea people.