[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 2, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H277-H278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SUPPORT THE VISCLOSKY-QUINN-KUCINICH-NEY STEEL BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, we are here because the policy of this 
administration on international finance and trade is causing a crisis 
for American workers and industries.
  The centerpiece of the administration's policy is to widen the trade 
deficit. They are depending on American consumers to continue spending 
record amounts to pull the rest of the world out of the severe 
recession it has plunged into. The rest of the world includes Russia, 
Thailand, Brazil and Mexico.
  Many of these countries have witnessed a dramatic devaluation of 
their currencies, which makes their product very cheap when sold in the 
United States. And when the products are flowing into the United States 
unfairly, underpriced to similar products made in America, the 
administration has chosen to allow the foreign product to undercut the 
American, and that is causing layoffs in many American industries, and 
it has reached a crisis level in steel.
  There is no question that the U.S. trade deficit is growing at a 
rapid pace. The goods and services trade deficit grew nearly 54 percent 
last year over the preceding year, according to figures compiled by the 
Economic Policy Institute, to a level of $170 billion.
  Cheap foreign steel is flooding the American market. Last year, a 
record amount of foreign steel came to the United States. In the third 
quarter, 56 percent more foreign steel was brought to the United States 
than in the third quarter of the preceding year.
  At the same time, American workers in industries affected by the 
foreign imports are losing their jobs. We are here today because the 
steel workers have been dramatically affected by the import of foreign 
steel made cheap by currency devaluations.
  Ten thousand American steel workers have already lost their jobs. 
Steel workers are not losing their jobs because the American steel 
industry is inefficient. In fact, the American steel industry is the 
world's most efficient. The reason American steel workers are losing 
their jobs is that the price of foreign steel, though more inefficient, 
is so much cheaper due to the devaluation of the currencies of those 
countries.
  Steel workers are not the only ones losing their jobs to cheap 
imports. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 249,000 workers, 
that is 249,000 American workers, lost their manufacturing jobs between 
March and December.
  Americans should know there is a direct connection between the inflow 
of cheap foreign products reflected in a growing trade deficit and 
American job loss. This is already having and will continue to have a 
profound negative effect on the United States economy.
  The Financial Times wrote in an editorial yesterday that the U.S. 
trade deficit is ``unsustainable.'' Unsustainable because the record 
levels of consumer debt, combined with mounting American job loss and 
resulting loss of wages and benefits, will make it impossible for 
Americans to continue to spend record amounts on foreign products; 
unsustainable because the economic policies that the International 
Monetary Fund have imposed on Thailand, Brazil and others create 
austerity and depression, not growth that will continue into the future 
and benefit the citizens of those countries.
  The administration is blind to this connection. In the President's 
recent report on steel, the administration proposes no comprehensive 
action to stem the inflow of foreign steel made cheap by currency 
devaluation.

[[Page H278]]

  In recent statements to Congressional committees, members of the 
administration have counseled that America stay the course and continue 
importing cheap foreign imports at record levels. But this policy is 
unsustainable. The U.S. cannot continue as an oasis of prosperity while 
the rest of the world experiences economic depression of a magnitude in 
some countries that greatly overshadows our own Great Depression of the 
1930's.
  The extent of the economic crisis around the world is so great that 
even if the United States doubles its record trade deficit, it will not 
be enough to pull the rest of the world out of its troubles, but it 
will be enough to send thousands and thousands more Americans out of 
work and send the United States into a recession.
  That is why we are here today, Mr. Speaker, to step into the breach 
by proposing the Visclosky-Quinn-Kucinich-Ney steel quota bill. Our 
bill will impose limitations on the imports of cheap foreign steel at 
levels not to exceed the average volume of steel products that was 
imported monthly during the three years before the recent import surge 
began in July 1997. Our bill is the only action that will directly 
confront the major cause of layoffs in the steel industry. Our bill is 
America's best hope in averting an economic crisis of our own.
  It is time to stand up for American steel workers. It is time to 
stand up for America's future. We cannot have a free nation if we let 
our manufacturing base fall apart, and that is what our trade policy is 
doing.

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