Report says US lost 2.3m jobs to China trade

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute says the US trade deficit with China was responsible for 2.3 million Americans losing their jobs between 2001 and 2007, Reuters reported. American workers who later found new work earned an average of US$8,146 less per year at their new jobs, said the report, which was partly funded by labor unions. The EPI is a politically liberal Washington think tank. The Alliance for American Manufacturing helped fund the report's research. The alliance's executive director, Scott Paul, said, "This report is groundbreaking because it shows the extent of damage caused by Chinese cheating." He said free trade will be a major issue in the November presidential election. Some US manufacturers, labor unions and politicians accuse China of manipulating its currency to give Chinese companies an unfair advantage in international trade. China has said the US should recognize the yuan has already risen 20% against the US dollar since July 2005. More than two-thirds of the jobs displaced by China trade deficits were in manufacturing, and more than half of the workers were in the top half of the US wage earners. The jobs include well-paying factory jobs with health insurance coverage and retirement benefits.