• Read the Economic Policy Institute report, China Trade Gap Causes Massive Job and Wage Losses.

The U.S. trade deficit with China alone is the largest in U.S. history with one country—$201 billion. That deficit has cost 410,000 U.S. jobs and job opportunities in the past two years alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The U.S. trade deficit is further increased by China’s manipulation of its currency, the yuan.

At the same time, China’s workers are denied basic workers’ rights. The AFL-CIO will resubmit a petition on workers’ rights in China to the Bush administration this year. 

• Read the China Currency Coalition’s Section 301 petition on China's currency manipulation.
• Read a summary of the Chinese Currency Act of 2005.
• AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee’s testimony on China's workers' rights abuses (PDF). 
• AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC) Executive Director Bob Baugh's testimony on the Chinese government's currency manipulation.
• IUC Executive Director Bob Baugh's testimony on the impact of Wal-Mart’s imports from China.
• AFL-CIO Solidarity Center report: The Struggle for Workers' Rights in China.

• From 1993 to 2004, the United States lost more than one million jobs due to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Find this info and more in the AFL-CIO Facts & Stats database.

• Read the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s statements on Outsourcing America and Taking Action to Challenge Communist China’s Unfair Trade Practices, and find other related resolutions and council statements at the AFL-CIO Convention archive.

• Read the statement of Richard L. Trumka, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (PDF).
• Read the testimony of Thea Mei Lee, AFL-CIO Policy Director, before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (PDF).
• AFL-CIO files workers’ rights case against China.
• Read the Economic Policy Institute report The High Price of 'Free' Trade.
• Read AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney's speech on global poverty.
• Find more information on the global economy at the AFL-CIO archives.