The crisis facing U.S. manufacturers is one of the central economic challenges confronting the country.  It stems in large part from our massive trade imbalance and disproportionately affects minorities. What is this crisis?

• Since the United States joined the WTO, our trade deficit in goods has exploded, rising from $150.6 billion in 1994 to $817.3 billion in 2006.ⁱ In 2006, our trade deficit with China alone amounted to $232.6 billion,ⁱⁱ a deficit more than eight times larger than that of any other country.ⁱⁱⁱ
• Since December 2000, the United States has lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs.^iv
• The U.S. manufacturing crisis results, in large part, from unfair practices by our trading partners. U.S. manufacturers face unfair import competition in the form of significant government subsidies,^v currency manipulation,^vi large-scale dumping in the U.S. market,^vii and other market-distorting practices.

Minorities are particularly vulnerable to the eroding manufacturing base:

• In 2004, William Julius Wilson, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, stated that “{s}ince 2001, over 300,000 black males have lost jobs in the manufacturing sector – the highest rate of any ethnic group.“^viii
• Over the past 35 years the percentage of African American men earning their living in factories has fallen from 40 percent to less than 20 percent in the Midwest, and from 25 percent to 10 percent nationally, according to The Center for Economic and Policy Research.^ix
• A July 2006 labor market estimate showed that both African American men and women saw an erosion of employment opportunities, but it was more pronounced for men than for women. This trend is in line with the above-average representation of African American men in manufacturing.  The unemployment rate for African American men grew by 1.6 percentage points to 11.2 percent in July ‘06, while it rose by 0.8 percentage points to 9.9 percent for African-American women.^x
• The heaviest job losses for Latinos so far are concentrated in manufacturing and the retail trade, which together account for 40 percent of all Hispanic unemployment according to the July 2006 report.^xi

What happens to urban communities hit by manufacturing job losses? A recent Chicago Tribune feature on Gary, Ind., provides a vivid example:

• Steel mill jobs along the Northwest Indiana shoreline have shrunk from 60,000 in the late 1970s to less than 20,000 today.^xii
• Gary itself has become a mostly poor, African American enclave, where one-third of the residents live in poverty. More than half of the families with children under 18 receive food stamps.^xiii

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ⁱ “Trade in Goods with World (Seasonally Adjusted)”, available at http://www.census.gov (last visited June 21, 2007).
ⁱⁱ “Trade with China,” available at http://www.census.gov (last visited June 21, 2007).
ⁱⁱⁱ See OECD Economic Outlook 80 database, annex tables 50 and 52 (Nov. 2006).
^iv Id.
^v See U.S. Trade Representative Press Release, “United States Files WTO Case Against China Over Prohibited Subsidies,” (Feb. 2, 2007), available at http://www.ustr.gov (last visited June 21, 2007).v
^vi See Petition under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 filed by a group of Congressmen known s the Bipartisan China Currency Action Coalition (May 17, 2007).
^vii See U.S. International Trade Commission, “Import Injury Investigations Case Statistics (FY 1980-2005)” (Oct. 2006) (stating that from 1980 to 2005, U.S. industries filed an average of 42 antidumping cases per year).  See also Semi-Annual Report Under Article 16.4 of the Agreement:  United States, WTO Doc. No. G/ADP/N/153/USA (March 13, 2007) (showing that the United States currently maintains 58 antidumping orders against China alone).
^viii “William Julius Wilson and Social Policy,” available at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu (last visited June 21, 2007).
^ix Center for Economic Policy and Research,  The Decline in African-American Representation in Unions and Manufacturing  1979-2006, http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1062&Itemid=8
^x Bureau of Labor Statistics: 2004-14 Employment Projections, ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/History/ecopro.12072005.news
^xi Bureau of Labor Statistics: 2004-14 Employment Projections, ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/History/ecopro.12072005.news
^xii THE BROKEN HEARTLAND: Looking for a way out without leaving home Manufacturing jobs once held promise for minorities in Gary, but dwindling opportunities are holding young workers back and creating social conflict in a city many have fled,” Chicago Tribune, by Stephen Franklin, 2/18/07
^xiii Racial Segregation in US Metropolitan Areas and Cities, 1990–2000: Patterns, Trends, and Explanations, by William Frey and Dowell Meyers, April 2005, http://www.frey-demographer.org/reports/rr05-573.pdf

• Manufacturing in the U.S.
• Holding China Accountable
• Currency Manipulation
• Economic Security
• Energy Security
• Health Security
• Enforcing Trade Laws
• Retirement Security
• National Security
• CHINA CHEATS