Among the many things that he screwed during his eight years in office, we all have former president Bill Clinton to thank for paving the way for China to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO).
A new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says that the U.S. lost 3.4 million jobs and billions of dollars in wages for U.S. workers as a result of China’s WTO membership.
According to Fox Business:
A model run by the EPI, a non-partisan think tank that advocates for low-and-middle income workers, examined the impacts of trade by subtracting the job opportunities lost to imports from those gained through exports. While imports from China have soared, exports to China have not increased by a similar magnitude. The result, therefore, is a loss of 3.4 million jobs in the U.S. between 2001- the year China joined the WTO - and 2017. Job losses have been across the country, while the manufacturing sector has been particularly hard hit. The EPI estimates that 2.5 million manufacturing jobs were lost between 2001 and 2017, about 75 percent of the total losses.
China joined the WTO in 2001, but it was Clinton who laid the foundation for the impending Chinese boom.
In 2000, Clinton signed what ABC News called “a historic bill granting permanent normal trade relations to China.” This opened the door for China to join the WTO one year later, conveniently after Clinton left office. It’s possible Clinton planned it out to happen that way so when that when the deal turned out to be a bust for the U.S., people would blame the following administration for Clinton’s folly.
The EPI reported in 2000 that “the Clinton Administration is confidently forecasting that the huge U.S. trade deficit with China will improve if Congress accords China permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) in order to accommodate Beijing’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).”
That statement should’ve set off alarm bells for a Congress that approved the Clinton deal with China, despite “stiff opposition from labor and human rights groups.
It’s funny. The Left constantly kowtows to human rights groups these days, but ignored them when it mattered most. Why? Because politicians typically don't act in the best interests of their citizenry.
Another interesting tidbit from the EPI report stated that “the growing deficit with China has cost jobs in all 50 states and in every congressional district in the United States.
“The five hardest-hit states based on total jobs lost were California (562,500 jobs lost), Texas (314,000), New York (183,500), Illinois (148,200), and Pennsylvania (136,100),” according to the report.
All it takes is one big move to open the door for decline, and Clinton was the catalyst for what subsequent presidents took the blame for.