Walmart's imports from China have cost 400,000 jobs in the last decade

A new report released by the U.S. based Economic Policy Institute suggests that Walmart's imports of consumer goods from China has led to the loss of over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013.

The report reveals that the retailer likely accounted for 15.3 per cent of growth in the U.S. goods trade deficit with China in the same period.

"Walmart has aided China's abuse of labour rights and its violations of internationally recognized norms of fair trade by providing a vast and ever-expanding conduit for the distribution of artificially cheap and subsidized Chinese exports to the United States," a spokesperson from the Economic Policy Institute said.

In 2013, Walmart said that it would buy $50 billion of American-made products by 2023, a target which the company later increased to $250 billion after pressure from labour groups and international critics, who say the company's drive for low cost goods was undermining jobs in the United States.