California bears brunt of trade deficit

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wed, Jan. 12, 2005

California bears brunt of trade deficit

By Karl Schoenberger
KNIGHT RIDDER


California was the state hardest hit by job losses blamed on the growing trade deficit with China, shedding more than 200,000 jobs over a 14-year period, according to a study released Tuesday by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The report, based on research by Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, says as many as 1.5 million American jobs were displaced by China between 1989 and 2003, a period when the U.S.-China trade deficit ballooned from $6.2 billion to $123 billion.

Many of the losses resulted from U.S. corporate investment in China's manufacturing sector, said Robert Scott, the economist who conducted the research.

He warned that the kind of jobs moving to China has changed over recent years, with strategic implications for the U.S. economy. The first American jobs to move to China were primarily in such labor-intensive sectors as apparel manufacturing. Now many jobs in the production of computers and telecommunications equipment are moving there as well.
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http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/business/10625093.htm?1c