The United States refused to sign the Kyoto agreement in 1997, and again in 2001, for a number of reasons. One major reason was that China and India were exempt from the stringent pollution controls that would have been imposed on the United States, so U.S. representatives said this would allow for an unfair trade advantage. Furthermore, the U.S. government was convinced that the protocol would severely damage the economy in general, costing many Americans their jobs and making the nation more dependent on foreign energy suppliers.