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Walmart's China imports cost 400,000 US jobs during 2001-2013: Report

The world's largest retailer likely to be accounted for 15.3% of the growth in the US goods trade deficit with China in the same period, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said in a report on Wednesday.

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Walmart Stores Inc's import of goods from China led to the loss of over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to a report from a US-based non-profit think tank.

The world's largest retailer likely to be accounted for 15.3% of the growth in the US goods trade deficit with China in the same period, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said in a report on Wednesday.

The goods trade deficit of the United States with China increased almost four-fold to $324.2 billion (approximately Rs  21,66,304.4  crore) in the 12 years till 2013, with Walmart accounting for $48.1 billion (Rs 3,21,404.2 crore) of the total, the EPI said.

"Walmart has aided China's abuse of labour rights and its violations of internationally recognised norms of fair trade by providing a vast and ever-expanding conduit for the distribution of artificially cheap and subsidised Chinese exports to the United States," the EPI said.

The EPI also said Wal-Mart's plan to source more US-made goods had resulted in very few actual manufacturing jobs being created.

Walmart said EPI's analysis was "flawed" and that the company adds jobs through areas of its business such as supply chain, logistics, and distribution. Walmart also cited a report by Boston Consulting Group that said the company will create an estimated 1 million new US jobs by 2023 through its US manufacturing initiatives, including direct job growth of about 250,000.

The EPI said the rising US trade deficit and more Walmart imports will likely displace much more manufacturing jobs than the company creates in the United States over the next decade.

Walmart had said in 2013 it would buy $50 billion (approximately Rs 3,34,100 crore) of American-made products by 2023, a target it later boosted to $250 billion (approximately Rs 16,70,500 crore) after coming under pressure from unions and other critics who said the company's drive for low-cost goods was undermining American jobs.

The EPI gets support from labour organisations such as the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which have backed campaigns by Walmart employees to improve pay and benefits.  

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