If the United States allows some of China's largest producers of freight rail cars into the country, they could end up eliminating up to 65,000 U.S. jobs, according to a study released Monday. "The pace of globalization and the arrival of entrants from countries such as China into the U.S. market, are threatening domestic competitiveness. In passenger rail manufacturing, the fallout is already being felt nationwide, from Boston to Chicago and Los Angeles," advisory firm Oxford Economics said in a report.



A U.S. railroad lobbying group, Rail Security Alliance, commissioned the report. Oxford Economics was founded in 1981 as a commercial venture with Oxford University's business college, according to its website.

The U.S. freight rail network is a $60 billion industry covering 140,000 rail miles and supporting 221,000 jobs, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. The worry for some is that state-owned Chinese corporations will enter the U.S. and sell Chinese-built freight rail cars far below the market price, forcing U.S. producers to close or relocate overseas. Oxford Economics estimates a minimum loss of 5,090 U.S. jobs from increased Chinese involvement in production, and a maximum loss of 64,280 U.S. jobs. The president of the Chicago-based US-China Chamber of Commerce, whose mission is to facilitate partnerships between businesses in the two countries, said China could pose a threat to jobs in the United States. "It seems [as] though the more investments come from China, the more jobs are going to lose," Siva Yam told CNBC in an email.

Australia's rail car industry almost eliminated