The Epoch Times WASHINGTON—Millions of American workers lost good-paying jobs, mainly in manufacturing, after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, a new report states.
The trade deficit with China has ballooned since then, costing an estimated 3.7 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2018, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.
The United States lost nearly 90,000 manufacturing plants during the same period, as a result of U.S. companies moving their operations to low-cost countries, primarily China.
“We’ve lost a generation of skilled workers who used to be employed in those plants,” Robert Scott, senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing research at the Economic Policy Institute, told reporters on a conference call on Jan. 30.
“It’s been devastating for mainstream America and for communities across the country.”
Trade-distorting practices, currency manipulation and misalignment, and suppression of wages and labor rights resulted in a flood of subsidized imports to the United States from China, according to the EPI report.
