U.S. Workers Shoved Aside In China Talks

The needs of American workers were not adequately addressed during discussions between the Obama administration and Chinese government leadership in late July, said Scott Paul, the executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, in an interview taped July 31 with CNN.

The American worker "unfortunately has been shoved aside or shoved down the road," Scott said, noting that Chinese government policies that have contributed to the shift of 2.3 million jobs from America to China in the past decade—including currency manipulation and and industrial subsidies—were left off the negotiating table. He warned that if these issues are not addressed, the United States faces the prospect of a jobless recovery.

"I think the least we can do right now is hold China to the standards that it agreed to when it entered the World Trade Organization" regarding its currency, industrial subsidies and openness to imports, Paul said.