Report: Trade Deficit with China Costs 2.8 Million Jobs
The U.S.-China trade deficit has eliminated or displaced nearly 2.8 million jobs, mainly in manufacturing, following that country’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, according to a study released today. View an interactive map of jobs lost throughout the United States here.
“Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 2.8 million jobs between 2001 and 2010” by Robert Scott, EPI’s director of trade and manufacturing policy research, finds that all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico suffered jobs lost or displaced as a result of the growing U.S.-China trade deficit.
The report cites illegal currency manipulation as a major cause of the trade deficit. Unlike other currencies, the Chinese yuan does not fluctuate freely against the dollar, but is artificially pegged in order to boost China’s exports.
Revaluing China’s Currency Would Create 2.25 Million U.S. Jobs
If China increased the value of its currency to its real level, the resulting growth in the United States could create 2.25 million new U.S. jobs, according to a new report.
The Benefits of Revaluation, released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), explains that if the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, and satellite currencies, such as those in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, were increased by 25 percent to 30 percent against the dollar, the U.S. gross domestic product would grow as much as $285.7 billion, creating up to 2.25 million U.S. jobs. Creating that many jobs would reduce the U.S. unemployment rate by at least one full percentage point.
Report: NAFTA Has Cost 683,000 Jobs—and Counting
To date, 682,900 U.S. jobs have been lost or displaced since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect in 1994, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study finds. The main reason for the job loss is a $97.2 billion trade deficit with Mexico. In 1993, one year before NAFTA was implemented, the United States had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico that supported nearly 30,000 U.S. jobs.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have seen jobs lost or displaced to Mexico in the past 17 years, says Robert Scott, EPI’s senior international economist and author of “Heading South: U.S.-Mexico trade and job displacement after NAFTA.”
Trade Deficit Costs Jobs in Every Congressional District
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Members of Congress, listen up: The nation’s huge trade deficit, mainly with China, has cost jobs in every congressional district, according to a report issued today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Contrary to conventional wisdom, high-tech industries are losing jobs faster than any other sector of the economy.
Since 2001, some 2.4 million jobs have been lost or displaced in this country as a result of the massive trade deficit with China, the report says. More than one-quarter—26 percent or about 628,000 jobs—displaced by trade between 2001 and 2008 are in computer, electronic equipment and parts industries. Last year alone, China was responsible for more than 80 percent of our total, nonoil trade deficit in goods.
The report cites China’s currency manipulation as a major cause of the trade deficit. Over the past decade, China has consistently undervalued its currency by an estimated 35 percent to 40 percent. As a result, while imports from China and U.S. trade deficits set records, American manufacturing employment has plummeted. Other causes of the deficit include massive industrial subsidies in China, lax labor and environmental law enforcement, intellectual property theft and piracy and Chinese policies that block U.S. imports. Click here to read the report.
Time to Take Tough Action Against China Currency Manipulation
The manipulation of its currency by China’s government is the major problem facing American manufacturing. It’s past time the U.S. government muster the will to take strong action, even imposing emergency tariffs, to level the playing field, several experts, including economist Paul Krugman and United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard, said yesterday.
Speaking at the forum on “Currency Manipulation: How Should the U.S. Respond?” sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) with the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), Robert Scott, EPI’s senior economist, said China’s currency manipulation has cost between 1.5 million and 3 million good American manufacturing jobs.
Fred Bergsten, director of the conservative Peterson Institute for International Economics, added:
If there is going to be a serious jobs program, the exchange rate of the dollar must be at the center of the debate.
Bad Climate Change Bill Could Cost 4 Million U.S. Jobs
Industries supporting more than 4 million U.S. jobs could be at risk unless lawmakers include strong provisions in climate change legislation to keep energy-intensive, trade-sensitive manufacturers competitive.
A new report says the legislation should include a system of rebates and allowances to help U.S. companies make the transition to lower carbon emissions and a tariff system, or border adjustments, to penalize countries that fail to regulate greenhouse gases in the production of goods.
The report, “Climate Change Policy,” released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), says a well-designed climate policy can support the economic recovery and green investments can support millions of new jobs, starting with the creation of more than 1 million jobs in the next two years. Click here to read the report.
