COLUMBIA - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Tuesday he wants tax breaks and incentives for companies that locate in communities reeling from job losses, especially those dependent on a struggling textile industry.

Speaking to an overflow crowd in a classroom at the University of South Carolina Law School, the N.C. senator said he sent a letter to President Bush urging immediate safeguards to prevent increasing imports from China that cause "an unfair trade advantage."

"Last year, our nation ran a $100 billion trade deficit with China," Edwards wrote in a letter to Bush. "We bought five times more from China than we sold there. More textile and apparel products are imported from China than any other country. With such a deficit, it is no coincidence we have lost 2.4 million manufacturing jobs since the beginning of 2001."

Edwards, one of nine Democratic White House hopefuls, also visited Charleston and Greenville during his two-day campaign stop in South Carolina, which holds its first-in-the-South Democratic primary Feb. 3.

Edwards criticized Bush for his free-trade policies, attempting to connect with Southern voters who blame cheaper overseas labor for manufacturing job losses.

But Edwards has received his share of criticism for not doing more to help N.C.-based Pillowtex, which is closing 16 plants, laying off about 6,450 employees and filing for bankruptcy.

Since Bush took office in 2001, it has been estimated North Carolina and South Carolina have lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs.

"And we see here in South Carolina, also in my state of North Carolina, how devastating the impact is," Edwards said Tuesday. "Well, this president is never going to do anything about it. He misses a fundamental thing that most of us understand, which is a job is about more than a paycheck. It's about self-respect and dignity and self-worth."

Edwards called for tax breaks and other incentives for existing American companies to keep jobs from going overseas.

"It's not enough to protect the jobs that we have," Edwards said. "We don't want folks who have been working in their community all their life to have to move 50, 75, 100 miles ... because they don't have a job."

Edwards blamed part of the trade imbalance on China's handling of its currency, which makes it harder for American manufacturers to compete. Next week, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow visits China, and Edwards said the success of his trip should be "judged on whether or not he makes real, concrete progress on currency manipulation."