Trade and Globalization

Inside Trade and Globalization

EPI’s research focuses on workers and measures how they are impacted by free trade, globalization, and the depression of wages borne from international agreements and policies.

U.S. trade deficit worsens in 2011

U.S. trade deficit worsens in 2011

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services increased by $58 billion last year.

On the Blog

May 24, 2013 | Why we should tax overseas corporate income
May 21, 2013 | Apple’s advice on corporate tax reform: more tax breaks, please!
May 1, 2013 | Will Apple follow in Nike’s failed footsteps?
April 24, 2013 | $100 billion to Apple shareholders, any to Apple workers?
March 29, 2013 | Kerry drinks the trade Kool-Aid, but trade agreements do NOT create jobs
March 22, 2013 | Manufacturing employment: Nothing to see here, move along…
March 14, 2013 | Is Japan really ready for free trade?
Feb. 26, 2013 | New Investigation Finds Alarming Conditions at Three Apple Suppliers
Feb. 22, 2013 | Problems in the high tech labor market
Feb. 21, 2013 | Obama and Abe should address currency manipulation and Japanese trade barriers
Feb. 13, 2013 | Signing trade deals is a terrible jobs strategy
Feb. 12, 2013 | What we read today
Feb. 11, 2013 | The president can end currency manipulation with the stroke of a pen, halving the U.S. trade deficit and creating millions of jobs
Jan. 16, 2013 | Apple’s own data reveal 120,000 supply-chain employees worked excessive hours in November
Jan. 11, 2013 | Don’t be fooled by Apple’s PR: Workers strike against sweatshop conditions

Recent work on Trade and Globalization

Using standard models to benchmark the costs of globalization for American workers without a college degree
March 22, 2013 | By Josh Bivens | Report
U.S. Export-Import Bank: No Rewards for Shipping Jobs Overseas
March 21, 2013 | By Owen E. Herrnstadt | Commentary
$45+ billion for Apple shareholders, nothing yet for Apple workers
March 20, 2013 | By Isaac Shapiro | Commentary
Rising trade deficits with Japan illustrate problem with proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership
March 7, 2013 | By Robert E. Scott | Economic snapshot
Apple’s self-reporting on suppliers’ labor practices shows violations remain common: Mixed results on labor and human rights, no overall progress in health and safety
February 12, 2013 | By Scott Nova and Isaac Shapiro | Commentary
U.S. trade deficit declined in 2012, but goods trade deficits with China, and in non-petroleum products, rose sharply
February 11, 2013 | By Robert E. Scott | Economic Indicators
Reducing U.S. trade deficits will generate a manufacturing-based recovery for the United States and Ohio: Ending currency manipulation by China and others is the place to start
February 7, 2013 | By Robert E. Scott, Helene Jorgensen, and Doug Hall | Report
Reviving U.S. manufacturing
January 9, 2013 | By Robert E. Scott | Multimedia
Polishing Apple: Fair Labor Association gives Foxconn and Apple undue credit for labor rights progress
November 8, 2012 | By Scott Nova and Isaac Shapiro | Report
Unions, inequality, and faltering middle-class wages
August 29, 2012 | By Lawrence Mishel | Report
The China toll: Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost more than 2.7 million jobs between 2001 and 2011, with job losses in every state
August 23, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott | Report
Alabama’s anti-immigrant laws put more than 13,000 good export jobs at risk
June 20, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott | Commentary
Comparing the pay of Apple’s top executives to the pay of the workers making its products
April 30, 2012 | By Isaac Shapiro | Commentary
Prospects for improved working conditions for Apple workers: Lessons from the EPI panel
April 20, 2012 | By Ross Eisenbrey and Isaac Shapiro | Commentary
The U.S. Export and Import Bank should help finance sales of domestic firms that compete with imports
April 5, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott | Commentary
Institutions that support U.S. jobs should be strengthened, not gutted
March 28, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott and Owen E. Herrnstadt | Commentary
U.S. trade deficit up in 2011; China accounted for three-fourths of rise in non-oil goods trade deficit
February 10, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott | Economic Indicators
Jobs in the U.S. auto parts industry are at risk due to subsidized and unfairly traded Chinese auto parts
January 31, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott and Hilary Wething | Report
Putting the pedal to the metal: Subsidies to China’s auto-parts industry from 2001 to 2011
January 31, 2012 | By Usha C.V. Haley | Report
Jobs and fairness: ‘prevailing wage’ rule good for Marylanders
October 26, 2011 | By Ross Eisenbrey | Commentary
Trade deficit with Mexico has resulted in 682,900 U.S. jobs lost or displaced
October 12, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Economic snapshot
Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 2.8 million jobs between 2001 and 2010
September 20, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Report
Debt ceiling deal threatens jobs, economic growth
August 4, 2011 | By Andrew Fieldhouse and Ethan Pollack | Report
Revaluing China’s currency could boost US economic recovery
June 17, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Report
Mexico trade deficit costs jobs in every state
May 3, 2011 | Economic snapshot
Heading South: U.S.-Mexico trade and job displacement after NAFTA
May 3, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Report
Colombia shouldn’t be rewarded with a Free Trade Agreement
April 7, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Commentary
Leveling the playing field in U.S.-China trade
April 5, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Testimony
Farm exports and farm labor: Would a Raise for Fruit and Vegetable Workers Diminish the Competitiveness of U.S. Agriculture?
March 21, 2011 | By Philip Martin | Report
What workers gave, and what they got
March 17, 2011 | By Lawrence Mishel | Economic snapshot

View Trade and Globalization archive →

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The China toll: Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost more than 2.7 million jobs between 2001 and 2011, with job losses in every state
August 23, 2012 | By Robert E. Scott | Report
Putting the pedal to the metal: Subsidies to China’s auto-parts industry from 2001 to 2011
January 31, 2012 | By Usha C.V. Haley | Report
Revaluing China’s currency could boost US economic recovery
June 17, 2011 | By Robert E. Scott | Report
The Wal-Mart effect: Its Chinese imports have displaced nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs
June 25, 2007 | By Robert E. Scott | Report

Josh Bivens, Research and Policy Director

Robert E. Scott

Robert E. Scott, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research

Apple workers unlikely to see any of company’s massive cash surplus

The debate over what to do with Apple’s reserve money has been “one-dimensional, with a nearly exclusive focus on how the reserves should be used to reward its shareholders,” writes the Economic Policy Institute’s Isaac Shapiro. The workers who manufacture and sell Apple products, he notes, have been left entirely out of the debate. Despite the notoriously grim conditions at some factories which make Apple products, low-level employees are unlikely to see any benefit from a massive corporate surplus.

MSNBC | March 21, 2013
NAFTA Raised Wages In The U.S., Mexico And Canada, Study Finds

But the case for NAFTA isn’t settled. A recent report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that the treaty has cost the U.S. jobs. The U.S.’ trade deficit with Mexico has cost the U.S. nearly 700,000 jobs as of 2010, according to the report.

The Huffington Post | November 13, 2012
CNN Fact Check: What really happened in China tire case?

First, has China really stolen U.S. jobs? The numbers say yes. Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China “eliminated or displaced more than 2.7 million U.S. jobs,” according to a report published in August by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank.

CNN | October 26, 2012
Obama And Romney Spar On China, Trade Despite Similar Plans

No swing state has seen its economy hammered as hard as Ohio’s since the U.S. joined the WTO in 1994, with employment in the manufacturing sector plunging by one-third, according to the consumer protection nonprofit group Public Citizen. According to a study by economist Robert Scott with the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank, Ohio shed 91,800 jobs between 2001 and 2010 due to the rising trade deficit with China.

The Huffington Post | October 24, 2012
Majority Of Jobs Added Since End Of Recession Pay Low Wages

A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute found that more than a quarter of Americans — 28 percent — would work in low-wage jobs for the next decade. Those jobs pay less than $11.06 an hour, the necessary wage to reach the federal poverty level. Low-wage sectors, EPI found, are growing faster than the overall economy.

Think Progress | September 4, 2012