How the China trade shock impacted U.S. manufacturing workers and labor markets, and the consequences for U.S. politics

How the China trade shock impacted U.S. manufacturing workers and labor markets, and the consequences for U.S. politics

Overview In the early 2000s, manufacturing-intensive communities in the United States entered a period of economic upheaval that would reshape their labor markets over the next two decades. China’s dramatic rise as the world’s leading exporter of manufactured goods, abetted by receipt of Permanent Normal Trade Relations from the United States in 2000 and accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, exerted immense pressure on manufacturing…