A mere 30 per cent of the American public believe trade with China has created “some or a lot of jobs” in their state, a new study revealed in the lead-up to the US election.

The East-West Centre, a Washington-based research institution, found in a survey that a slight majority of the American public – more than 55 per cent – did not know the impacts on job creation of trading with Asia in general or with China in particular.

Respondents who were categorised as members of the US general public were also less worried than stateside political and business elites about the country losing its trade competitiveness to China.

Only 36 per cent of these respondents said they were “moderately or extremely concerned” compared to more than half of the surveyed political and business elites who felt that way.