WASHINGTON — A pro-manufacturing group is using the loss of North Carolina furniture jobs as an example in an effort to get presidential candidates to address trade and manufacturing policy issues.

AMTAC, the American Mfg. Trade Coalition, has recruited North Carolina business leaders and union officials to join in the call for action. One of those taking part is Allen Gant, CEO of fabric supplier Glen Raven.

Citing federal Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, AMTAC said North Carolina has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001. In furniture production, some 28,600 jobs or 37% of the total have vanished. The textile industry has lost 62,800 jobs or nearly 62% of the total in the past seven years.

The group also noted that capital spending on plants and equipment for furniture and related product manufacturing, adjusted for inflation, declined from $156.5 million in 1997 to $62.2 million in 2006.

AMTAC will urge the candidates to spell out their plans to reverse the manufacturing job losses. The group recommends policy changes including:

• Requiring reciprocity in trade agreements, so that other countries can buy U.S. goods as easily as we buy theirs.
• Offsetting foreign tax advantages that give export companies in other countries a break while making it more expensive for citizens of those nations to buy U.S.-made products.
• Acting to end currency manipulation that artificially keeps Chinese goods cheaper.
• Separating trade enforcement from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, who also is charged with negotiating trade agreements.
• Stopping the practice of negotiating free trade agreements with countries that can’t buy U.S. finished goods.