Although the discipline has yet to come to a conclusion on the subject, there is currently [ ] empirical evidence that part of the decline in American manufacturing employment was due to trade with China. [ ] remains an alternative hypothesis.

The answer would be TRUE

Explanation:

The notion that imports hurt American workers is easy to believe because people can see shuttered factories and workers losing their jobs, while imported goods line store shelves and sales lots. Although specific workers are hurt by foreign trade (the gross effect of trade), people make two basic mistakes about trade that lead them to think trade has more negative effects than it really does.

First, the effect of rising imports on total employment is offset by rising export employment and the reallocation of workers to other industries. In many trade disputes, our threats to put tariffs on specific imports are met with counterthreats to put high tariffs on our exports. When the US raised tariffs on Chinese solar panels in 2013, the Chinese increased tariffs on American polysilicon, leading the Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor to lay off hundreds of workers. 2 More recently, Investor's Business Daily reported that Boeing, General Motors, and Apple would likely face retaliation for any tariff increases that President Trump might put on Chinese imports. 3 Finally, American agricultural companies are nervous that a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement would hurt their sales to Mexico.

These examples show trade disruptions with foreign firms have serious consequences. Nowhere is this more evident than in the integrated automobile production across Canada, the US, and Mexico.

Although it seems that jobs can be gained by unravelling this production chain, the loss of efficiencies would lead to higher costs and lower sales.