Trade deficit with China has cost 1.5 million U.S. jobs, report says

January 11, 2005 -

By Doreen Hemlock
Business Writer

The growing trade deficit with China has cost the United States roughly 1.5 million jobs since 1989, mainly in apparel and low-tech production but increasingly in high-tech fields, according to a study released Monday for an advisory group to Congress.

But economists differ over the impact of growing trade with China.

Antonio J. Villamil, an adviser to Gov. Jeb Bush, said the new report downplays the gains from trade, such as lower prices for consumers and new jobs created by imports for such service companies as freight forwarders and banks.

"If trade with China were so bad, why do we have such low inflation rates and unemployment rates in the United States today -- some of the lowest rates in three decades," said Villamil, who heads up the Washington Economics Group in Coral Gables.

Read whole article>>