Report: China trade 'cost 1.5m US jobs'

A report by a pro-labor group in the United States blamed China for the loss of nearly 1.5m American jobs between 1989 and 2003. Compiled by the Economic Policy Institute and submitted to for the US Congress-appointed US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the report estimates that Chinese imports displaced 1.659m workers between 1989 and 2003, while exports to China generated only 199,000 additional US jobs. It said the rate of US job losses attributable to trade with China had also accelerated in recent years. "The assumptions we built our trade relationship with China on have proved to be a house of cards," report author Robert Scott said. "Everyone knew we would lose jobs in labor-intensive industries like textiles and apparel, but we thought we could hold our own in the capital-intensive, high-tech arena." He added that a large part of the blame for the ballooning trade deficit with China lay with Beijing's "refusal to revalue its exchange rate".