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n2doc

(47,953 posts) Mon Dec 15, 2014, 12:46 PM Dec 2014

Trade with China has cost 3.2 million American jobs — in all but one congressional district

After 15 years of negotiating, China was finally granted membership to the World Trade Organization in 2001, a pivotal step in the opening of the country’s economy.

The impact of its entry was much debated, but one thing quickly became clear: It was a good move for China. A new study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute shows that while China gained, the American labor market suffered: At least 3.2 million American jobs were displaced during the first dozen years that China was in the WTO, thanks to an unbalanced trade relationship between the two countries.

“The growing trade deficit with China has cost jobs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” EPI’s Robert E. Scott and Will Kimball write. “Using a new model and new congressional district data to estimate the job impacts of trade for the 113th Congress, this study also finds that job losses occurred in every congressional district but one.” (California’s 21st congressional district, located in the state’s Central Valley, was the only one that saw no job losses due to Chinese trade, according to the report.)

Imports from China grew dramatically from $102 billion the year it joined the WTO to $438 billion in 2013. Trade in reverse grew as well, from $18 billion to $114 billion. But in 2013 the U.S. was importing four times more from China than it was exporting to the country, making it one of the—if not the—most imbalanced trade relationship for the U.S. That growing trade deficit contributed to an ever-increasing displacement of American jobs, as depicted in the graphic below.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/12/15/trade-with-china-has-cost-3-2-million-american-jobs-in-all-but-one-congressional-district-report-finds/

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Trade with China has cost 3.2 million American jobs — in all but one congressional district (Original Post) n2doc Dec 2014 OP

Should we have kept the world's biggest country out of the 160-member WTO even if pampango Dec 2014 #1

pampango

(24,692 posts)

1. Should we have kept the world's biggest country out of the 160-member WTO even if

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Mon Dec 15, 2014, 03:19 PM

Dec 2014

they agree to follow its rules? Should the WTO be a private club just for 'rich' countries? It's a little late for that since it has 160 member countries many of which are poorer though, of course, not as big as China or Russia. Does it really make sense to want to exclude Russia and China from such a global organization?

Would we be insulated from the effects of the world's largest economy if China were not in the WTO? It is hard for some Americans to accept, but we are part of the world.

We traded with China before it joined the WTO and the ratio of imports to exports was the same then as it is now, the numbers have just gotten bigger. Who is to say that those numbers would not have gotten bigger as China's economy grew even if it were not in the WTO? Or would we prefer that China's economy (with 1/6 of the world's population) had not grown but stayed isolated and poor?

If keeping China out of the WTO would not have prevented its economy from growing, perhaps we could have tried a Cuba-style trade embargo to keep those Chinese poor and out of our hair. That has worked pretty well to keep Cuba poor and economically isolated, although not many liberals support that policy.

Germany has a trade deficit with China but it is a manageable 53%-47% ratio of imports to exports. Imports from China are 2.6% of Germany's economy. They are also 2.6% of the US economy. (Germany does not waste time pondering whether the biggest country in the world should be in the global trading body.) Despite higher wages and stronger unions Germany exports almost as much to China as we do, despite having 1/4 of our population. Why is that?

China is part of the world and so are we. We both have to deal with it. We shouldn't exclude China from the WTO any more than we should kick them out of the UN, the WHO or any other global organization. They are as much a part of the world as we are.

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