WTO

In 2000 the US trade deficit with China was $80 billion and last year it was $375 billion. The deficit has risen dramatically since China was allowed to join the World Trade Organization in 2001. This is a world wide group that sets the rules for international trade and is an example of how the US fairs under international agreements. Due to the trade deficit with China 3.4 million jobs were lost between 2001 and 2015, including 1.3 million jobs lost since the first year of the Great Recession in 2008. Nearly three-fourths (74.3 percent) of the jobs lost between 2001 and 2015 were in manufacturing (2.6 million manufacturing jobs displaced). How does this help the United States. Here is one answer. Author Robert Z. Lawrence of Harvard University says that the United States benefits from the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, which has “reduced the need for the United States to resort to unilateral retaliatory measures, limiting an important source of tension between the United States and its partners.” President Clinton was initially opposed to China's entry to the WTO but after consulting with Chinese and American business interest he changed his mind. China's GDP was $1 trillion or less for many years but beginning in 2001 it started up and today is at $12 trillion. China likes the WTO because it puts China first.