Ohio lost 106,400 jobs because of the U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013, according to a new report by a Washington think tank.

In Ohio’s 9th Congressional district, which includes most of Toledo, there were 5,700 jobs displaced because of the trade deficit.

Overall, the country lost 3.2 million jobs — including 2.4 million manufacturing jobs — during the 12-year period that began when China entered the World Trade Organization, according to the report produced by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.

The report was commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a coalition between several leading U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers that promotes American products.

When China was admitted to the WTO, the expectation was that U.S. exports to China would increase and create thousands of new jobs, the report said. The WTO was supposed to bring China into trade compliance with enforceable rules and open up its markets to other countries.

But the EPI said since 2001 China has engaged in currency manipulation and other trade-distorting practices, including subsidies, barriers to imports, dumping, and suppression of wages and labor rights, to increase its own exports substantially while limiting imports.

The report says that exports from China to the United States increased dramatically from $102.1 billion in 2001 (the year China joined the WTO) to $438.2 billion in 2013.

According to the policy institute, the hardest-hit industry was computer and electronic parts, which lost 1.2 million jobs — or about 39.6 percent of all jobs lost because of the Chinese trade deficit.

Manufacturing jobs decreased by 2.4 million, and the motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts segment lost 34,800 jobs, the EPI said.

Ohio’s loss of 106,400 jobs during the period was the eighth highest. It equaled about 2 percent of the state’s 5.2 million jobs. California had the highest loss at 564,200 jobs, or about 3.4 percent of its total employment.

The policy institute calculated job loss in every state’s Congressional districts. In the 9th District, which spreads east across Ohio’s northern boundary, there were 5,700 jobs lost, or about 1.8 percent of all jobs in the district.

The 14th District, which includes most of northeast Ohio, had the highest job losses in the state at 9,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of the state’s total employment.

Ohio’s 5th District, with Wood County and western sections of Lucas County, lost 7,500 jobs, or 2.2 percent of Ohio’s total employment.

Nationwide, the report said the hardest-hit districts were those where production of computer and electronic parts were most prevalent. The three hardest-hit districts were in California’s Silicon Valley area.

Furthermore, the report said that the competition from low-wage workers in China drove down wages for U.S. workers in manufacturing operations and reduced wages and bargaining power for noncollege educated workers across the U.S. economy.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published December 16, 2014, 5:00 a.m.