Trade deficit between U.S. and China a reason for high unemployment in Pennsylvania, says report

Unemployed Pennsylvania workers who find themselves consolidating debt and saving money as they search for a new job may be able to look no further than U.S. economic policy to see why they are in such a predicament.

According to a newly released survey from Keystone Research Center and theEconomic Policy Institute, the state of Pennsylvania has shed 95,700 jobs in same time since 2001 that the U.S. trade deficit with China has increased by 274 percent.

The report added that the deficit’s growth has been largely sparked by manipulation of the value of its currency to take advantage of the agreement between the two nations while also leading to U.S. products being sold at inflated prices in China, creating problems that impede the nation’s recovery form the economic downturn.

"We have allowed the Chinese government to game the system for far too long, with serious consequences for the U.S. economy," said Robert Scott, the report’s author and an EPI economist. "The Treasury Department should publicly declare China to be a currency manipulator, and the Congress should authorize tariffs of at least 25 percent if China doesn’t start playing by fair rules."

In order to take steps to rectify the trade deficit issue, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee will hold a meeting this week to discuss the issue as lawmakers in the Senate discus legislation introduced last week to help lessen the deficit.