America's trade policy with China has already cost U.S. jobs and threatens to cause more losses in the years to come, according to two West Virginia lawmakers who want to repeal the favorable trade status enjoyed by that nation.

Congressmen Nick Rahall and Alan Mollohan, both D-W.Va., are original cosponsors of legislation which would revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China. The measure was introduced in the House late Wednesday.

"PNTR has been a boom for China, but a bust for workers here at home," Rahall said. According to a January 2005 study, 1.5 million U.S. jobs were lost from 1989-2003 due to trade deficits with China. America's 2004 trade deficit with the country is estimated at $160 billion, roughly one-fourth of the U.S. total.

"Together with free-traders in Washington who believe that outsourcing American jobs is ‘just a new way of doing international trade,' PNTR is exporting the livelihoods of our U.S. workers and hurting their families," Mollohan said.

H.R. 728, cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 60 lawmakers, would end the PNTR now in place, prompting the negotiation of a new and fair trade agreement with China.

"It defies all logic to expect the United States to successfully compete with nations that don't follow worker rights, environmental regulations and safety rules which are similar to our own," Mollohan said.

"Until we take a reasonable approach to foreign trade, jobs that are held by Americans will continue to be shipped overseas. The policies that are now in place simply aren't in the best interests of our own workers," Rahall said.

The lawmakers noted that in addition to continued employment losses in the manufacturing sector, a growing number of information technology jobs are projected to be lost to China and India over the next decade.