Friday, September 23, 2011

9/23/2011 - China Took Almost Ten Thousand Jobs from Maine


Maine has lost 9,545 jobs to China since the Communist nation entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) ten years ago.


That's according to a report by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which figures that China's unfair economic subsidies, currency manipulations and inhumane labor practices have resulted in 2.8 million U.S. jobs either lost or displaced.


The report concluded that 1.45 percent of lost jobs in Maine were due to trade with China. Other states in the region fared worse. New Hampshire lost 19,700 jobs, or 2.84 percent of employment and Vermont saw 2.39 percent of jobs slip away. Overall, around 170,000 jobs in New England were eliminated from trading with China; that's greater than the population of Portland, Lewiston and Bangor, Maine's three largest cities, combined!


Recently, as we reported on the Exception Magazine, Senator Olympia Snowe and Congressman Mike Michaud both called on President Obama to make sure America's trading partners play by the rules.
Michaud has also introduced a bill to give the government more power to fight back against countries like China that keep their currencies artificially low so that their products seem cheaper on the global market.
“Now is the time to act on this bill,” said Michaud. “It received bipartisan support when it passed the House last year and it’s beyond me why congressional leaders won’t take it up this year. This is a jobs bill that won’t cost the taxpayers a dime and could substantially reduce a trade deficit that has devastated our economy.”


No comments:

Post a Comment