WASHINGTON (PAI) - China's trade surplus with the U.S., created by undervalued currency, low pay for Chinese workers and a deliberate drive for industrial exports, has cost the U.S. economy almost 2.3 million jobs from 2001 through 2007, says an Economic Policy Institute study.

The average U.S. worker who lost his or her job to China since 2001 lost more than $8,000 yearly in wages when he or she found a new job, EPI adds, but the impact was wider than that.

That's because competition from low-priced Chinese imports and low-paid Chinese workers drove down other U.S. workers' wages, EPI said. It calculated an average U.S. worker who kept a job, but whose firm faced competition from the Chinese imports, was forced to take a $1,400 pay cut over the last seven years as a result.

Among the states, Michigan was the ninth biggest "loser" - with 79,500 jobs lost from 2001 though 2007.

Between 2001 and last year, China's trade surplus with the U.S. - and our deficit with China - tripled, to $262 billion, representing a 21% increase annually.