China Has Cost NC Jobs

According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a new study finds that the trade deficit with China has cost North Carolina over 100,000 jobs since 2001.  Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) is a non-partisan, non-profit partnership forged to strengthen manufacturing in the U.S.   A staggering 2.8 million jobs, largely in manufacturing, have been lost as a result of the growing U.S. trade deficit with China since that country’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, according to a study released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).  The report, written by EPI’s Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research Robert E. Scott, cited illegal currency manipulation as a major cause of the rapidly growing U.S. trade deficit with China.  Unlike other currencies, the Chinese Yuan does not fluctuate freely against the dollar, but is artificially pegged in order to boost China’s exports.
In North Carolina, the EPI report disclosed that 107,800 jobs were lost as a result of the growing trade deficit with China.   Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), said, “North Carolina urgently needs more manufacturing jobs to put people back to work, but our out-of-control trade deficit with China makes that impossible. Reducing our trade deficit and stopping China's unfair trade practices will grow jobs, lower our trade deficit and put the United States on sound fiscal footing.”  The report concluded that “Unless China raises the real value of the Yuan by at least 28.5 percent and eliminates other trade distortions, the U.S. trade deficit and job losses will continue to grow rapidly in the future.”