Labor & Employment Law

Congressional Report: China?s WTO Membership Doesn?t Help U.S. Workers

By James Parks

China?s government has failed to live up to the claims its backers made in 2001 to help it gain entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to a congressional commission.

In its 2010 annual report, released yesterday, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) details the multiple ways the Chinese government has flooded the United States with exports while shutting its doors to imports and costing millions of U.S. jobs. 

In an understatement, Carolyn Bartholomew, the commission?s vice-chairman, told a Washington, D.C., press conference yesterday:

The grounds on which it [China?s entry into the WTO] was sold did not turn out as promised for American workers.

Supporters claimed in 2001 that admitting China into the WTO would boost U.S. exports, increase American jobs and help transform China?s authoritarian government and enhance U.S. national security. None of that has happened, the USCC report says.  

Instead, the 316-page report says since China?s government joined the WTO in December 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has grown to record levels. The report also calls for lawmakers to deal with China?s currency manipulation as well as actions such as investment requirements and export restrictions.

The trade deficit with China will displace between 512,000 and 560,000 U.S. jobs this year, according to a study by the Economic Policy institute (EPI). Ending currency manipulation by China?s government would help rebuild demand for U.S. manufactured goods, could create more than 1 million U.S. jobs, stimulate U.S. economic growth and reduce the U.S. budget deficit by up to $500 billion over the next six years, EPI says.

The WTO deal failed in another sense as well, the advisory panel says:

Predictions that China?s accession would lead to the transformation of China?s authoritarian government and enhance U.S. national security have not been borne out.

In his opening statement, USCC Chairman Dan Slane says China?s government:

quite simply intends to wall off a majority of its economy from international competition.

 The 12-member USCC is appointed by both Democratic and Republican members in Congress. You can read the USCC report here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 18, 2010 (boomark / email).