Imports from China by Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies.
据经济政策研究所(Economic Policy Institute)估计，2001年至2013年期间，美国最大零售商及进口商沃尔玛(Walmart)从中国进口商品，导致国内超过40万个职位遭淘汰或取代。这家进步派研究机构多年来一直在针对沃尔玛的策略。
The jobs, mostly in manufacturing, represent about 13 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced over those same years that the study attributes to the United States’ goods trade deficit with China. Walmart’s Chinese imports amounted to at least $49 billion in 2013, according to the study, which was based on trade and labor data. Over all, the United States’ trade deficit with China hit $324 billion that year.
所涉职位主要属于制造业，它们在同一时期内被取代的320万个工作岗位里占了约13%，该研究将之归咎于美国对中国的商品贸易赤字。根据基于贸易和劳工数据得出的这项研究，沃尔玛在2013年的中国进口总额至少490亿美元。而该年美国对中国总贸易赤字达3240亿美元。
“Walmart is one of the major forces pulling imports into the United States,” said Robert E. Scott, an economist at the institute and the study’s author. “And the jobs we’re losing are good-paying manufacturing jobs, which pay higher wages and provide better benefits.”
“沃尔玛是引领进口产品进入美国的主力之一，”研究所经济师、该研究作者罗伯特·E·斯科特(Robert E. Scott)说。“我们正在失去的都是些高收入的制造业职位，这些职位工资更高，福利也更好。”
Walmart disputed the conclusions of the study, which is an update of estimates that the institute released in 2007. For one, many of the numbers used in the study rely on guesswork, because retailers do not generally release a breakdown of their imports.
这项研究是对该机构在2007年发布的估算的一次更新，沃尔玛对其结论存有异议。首先研究中很多数字都是推测出来的，因为零售商一般不会公布其进口细目。
Some economists also point out that studies like these do not properly account for the jobs that imports can create in industries like transportation, wholesale and retail.
一些经济学家也指出，这样的研究没有对进口在运输、批发及零售等行业创造的职位给予适当的考量。
“We are very proud of our U.S. manufacturing initiative, and the results speak for themselves. By investing in products that support American jobs, we are able to bring new products to our shelves while bringing new jobs to local communities in Ohio, Tennessee, California and many others,” Lorenzo Lopez, a Walmart spokesman, said in a statement.
“对于我们在美国制造业的促进措施，我们非常自豪，而其结果也不言而喻。通过投资有效支持美国就业机会的产品，我们能在把新产品带上货架同时，为俄亥俄、田纳西、加利福尼亚等地的本地社区带来新的职位，”沃尔玛发言人洛伦佐·洛佩兹(Lorenzo Lopez)在一份声明中说。
“Unfortunately, this is an old report with flawed economic analysis that assumes that imports equal job losses and does not take into consideration that countless jobs are added through the global supply chain, distribution and logistics, among other areas of the business,” Mr. Lopez added.
洛佩兹还说，“不幸的是，这是一个采用了不完善经济分析的过时报告，假定了进口商品就等于职位流失，却没有考虑到，透过全球供应链、分销和物流等领域所增加的无数职位。”
Walmart has long been the subject of criticism from groups like the Economic Policy Institute over its role in flooding the United States with cheap imports. Under pressure, Walmart in 2013 announced that it would increase its sourcing of American-made products by $50 billion over the next 10 years.
长期以来，类似经济政策研究所这样的组织一直在批评沃尔玛，称它使美国充斥廉价的进口商品。在压力之下，沃尔玛在2013年宣布，将在未来10年增加50亿美元的美国制造产品采购量。
The retailer said at the time that it would buy more goods already produced in the United States, like games and paper, and help vendors in areas like furniture and textiles return production that had moved overseas.
沃尔玛说，届时他们会购买更多已经在美国生产好的商品，如游戏运动器材和纸张，并会帮助家具和纺织品等领域的供应商，把他们已移至海外的生产线迁移回来。
But critics quickly rebuffed the initiative as a public-relations stunt, pointing out that the $50 billion made up just a fraction of the sales growth Walmart — which has annual sales of almost $500 billion — was likely to log over the next decade.
但批评者立刻斥其为公关噱头，指出50亿美元跟沃尔玛在未来十年有望取得的销售增长——其年销售额近5000亿美元——比起来只是一个零头。
Harold L. Sirkin, a senior partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group, said that America’s trade deficit with China had indeed led to net job losses. But as labor costs soared in China, that situation was reversing — and Walmart’s move was significant.
波士顿咨询集团(Boston Consulting Group)高级合伙人兼总经理哈罗德·L·西尔肯(Harold L. Sirkin)表示，美国对中国的贸易赤字的确导致了职位净流失。但是，随着中国劳动力成本大幅上涨，这种情况正在逆转——而沃尔玛的措施非常重要。
“What we’re seeing now is that more things are coming back to the U.S.,” Mr. Sirkin said. The cost to retailers of sourcing furniture and appliances in the United States, for example, was becoming comparable to the costs of importing those products from China, he said.
“我们现在看到有更多的东西正在返回美国，”西尔肯说，例如零售商采购美国家具和家电的开销，已经开始和从中国进口这些产品的开销相当。
“Walmart’s buying American not just for the sake of America,” he said. “They’re buying American because of economics.”
“沃尔玛购买美国制造商品不只是为了美国，”他说。“他们购买美国制造商品是因为经济因素。”
The institute’s study estimated the direct and indirect labor requirements of production in 195 industries, of which 77 were in manufacturing. It estimated the labor that would be required to produce a given volume of exports, and the labor displaced when those imports replace domestic output.
该研究所的研究估算了在195个行业里的直接和间接生产劳动力需求，其中77个属于制造业。研究估算了一定出口量下所需的劳动力，以及进口商品替代国内产出时的劳动力流失量。