U.S. Trade Policy

Floor Speech

U.S. TRADE POLICY -- (House of Representatives - July 12, 2007)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the United States has just announced the second highest monthly trade deficit for this year, $60 billion. That is just in the month of May. Our Nation continues to import more goods and services than we export at alarming rates, with a record $192 billion more coming into this country in the earlier part of this year than going out.

This particular chart shows the top category of concern, imported petroleum, which has continued to rise, including in this Presidential administration, despite President Bush's statement at the beginning of his administration that we have a serious problem. America is addicted to oil, which is being imported from some of the most unstable parts of the world. He said that, and yet he continued to allow the import of more petroleum.

Americans are watching as our government does nothing to curb these growing trade deficits, with their accompanying job losses, deteriorating labor conditions and community washouts that U.S. trade policy leaves in its wake.

A bill I have sponsored, H.R. 169, the Balancing Trade Act of 2007, requires the President, if over 3 consecutive calendar years the United States has a trade deficit with another country that totals over $10 billion, to take the necessary steps to create a trading relationship that would eliminate or substantially reduce that trade deficit by entering into better agreements with that country. In other words, if the United States runs a substantial deficit with any one country, the President must report back to Congress on his plans for correcting that imbalance. This is a very constructive first step to correct the path of U.S. trade policy which is yielding this red ink.

Our bill calls attention to those countries who are taking advantage of our willingness to import goods from them while they block our access to their markets. Our two largest deficits in 2006, for example, were first with China. This is a country we have amassed a $232.5 billion deficit. That is an enormous amount, comprising about a quarter of what we have amassed with all countries in the world. And the deficit with China has just grown at alarming proportions.

The next largest deficit is with Japan. That has been a lingering deficit that has been growing over the years. It now totals about one-third of what we accumulate with China; it's about $88.4 billion. And every billion in deficit equals a loss of between 10,000 and 20,000 jobs in this country. That is a displacement in production in this country, putting it someplace else.

Now, these deficits have persisted for years, which makes them particularly troublesome. This chart illustrates our deficit with China pre and post what is called ``normal trade relations'' with China. We had a very bad deficit already back in the late 1990s, but with the adoption of permanent trade relations with China, that deficit has more than doubled.

If we had taken steps to correct this deficit at the beginning of the downward turn rather than turning our backs on it and allowing more red ink with China, our country would be stronger today. It would not have the kind of annual budget deficits that we're having. And we would be more economically secure here at home and, frankly, politically secure in the world. Instead, we continue to sacrifice our jobs to the lowest bidders in closed markets that do not follow rules of free trade. Free trade can be productive and it can be profitable, but only if it is free trade among free people.

Trading with closed economies that manipulate currency, that choose not to enforce what scant labor standards they might have, and otherwise levy very restrictive non-tariff barriers against our products harm our economy. America, wake up. We can no longer ignore the games that our competition is playing with us. We must trade for America; not for secret, nontransparent governments to prosper off our unwillingness to hold them to democratic standards or, at the very least, the rules of truly free trade among free people.

I urge my colleagues to join me in requiring the President to address this issue by cosponsoring our bill, H.R. 169. We must take action to reduce the trade deficit and restore our economic independence, competitiveness and begin creating jobs across our country again.

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