[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 21, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S11094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE TRADE DEFICIT

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, today there was an announcement by the 
Commerce Department about this country's monthly trade deficit. This 
month our trade deficit in goods and services surged to a high of $25.2 
billion just for the month. If you are just worried about manufactured 
goods, it's much higher than that; but for goods and services, the 
trade deficit was $25.2 billion just this month. It is the 7th 
consecutive month. We have a very serious trade deficit problem and 
nothing seems to be being done about it.
  I want to show my colleagues a chart that describes what is happening 
with both exports and imports in this country. Incidentally, this will 
be met with a large yawn tomorrow in the newspapers. I assume the daily 
papers here in Washington, DC, will go to the same so-called experts 
for comments about what is causing the trade deficit. They will give 
the same comments they have given month after month, year after year. 
In fact, in the old days they used to say that the reason we have a 
trade deficit is because we have a fiscal policy deficit and as soon as 
we get rid of the budget or fiscal policy deficit, we will not run a 
trade deficit. Of course that is not the case. The trade deficit 
continues to grow at an alarming pace, even when the Federal budget 
deficit is largely erased.
  The question is whether this Congress and this administration will 
decide that the current trade policy, which is drowning this country in 
red ink, will be changed and if so how it will be changed. I find it 
interesting that we are now headed towards a World Trade Organization 
meeting in Seattle, in late November and early December. During that 
first week of December, our trade officials will go to Seattle and talk 
with representatives from other countries around the world, talking 
about our trade policies. If ever there was a need for this country to 
decide its current trade strategy is unworkable, it is now, at this 
moment.
  I thought it would be interesting to talk a little bit about what our 
trade officials have been doing while this huge trade deficit continues 
to explode. Recently, this country got angry with the European Union 
for, among other things, the European Union's refusal to lower barriers 
to the import of bananas into Europe. We do not produce bananas, but 
large American companies produce bananas in the Caribbean. They wanted 
to ship these bananas into Europe, but Europe didn't want their 
bananas.
  This got us upset, so this country is taking tough action against 
Europe. We said, Europe, if you don't shape up this is what we are 
going to do. We are going to impose 100 percent tariffs on your 
products and selected the products we want to impose 100 percent 
tariffs on.
  We went through a similar dispute with the European Union over 
imports of beef with growth hormones. And we imposed 100 percent 
tariffs on selected products. Let me show you what they are, among 
others: Roquefort cheese. That is getting tough, imposing a 100 percent 
tariff on Roquefort cheese. Goose livers--that's going to scare the 
devil out of the Europeans, a 100 percent tariff on goose livers. How 
about chilled truffles? That is getting tough. And animal bladders.
  So this country cranks up all its energy because we can't get bananas 
we don't produce into Europe. In our dispute over beef hormones, we 
decide that we are going to clamp down on goose livers, truffles, and 
animal bladders. That is a trade strategy? I don't think so. If down at 
Trade Ambassador's office, down at Commerce or elsewhere, you want to 
do something to help this country's trade balance, then get serious 
about it. Do something to stand up for this country's producers. Force 
open foreign markets and demand--literally demand--other countries to 
stop the dumping of products into our marketplace below their 
acquisition cost, injuring our producers.

  I have talked for a moment about goose livers, truffles, Roquefort 
cheese and animal bladders. Let me talk about something that is a bit 
different--durum wheat that is being hauled into this country from 
Canada in record supply. In North Dakota we produce 80 percent of all 
the durum produced in America. Durum, by the way, is ground into 
semolina flour and then turned into pasta. If you eat pasta, you are 
likely eating something that came from a field in North Dakota. Guess 
what is happening? Our farmers are losing money hand over fist, and at 
the same time Canadian farmers are dumping massive quantities of durum 
wheat into our marketplace, undercutting our farmers and injuring them 
badly.
  What are we doing about it? Nothing. We don't lift a finger. We are 
willing to go to war over truffles and goose livers. We are willing to 
take tough action against the Europeans with Roquefort cheese. Do you 
think anybody will go to the northern border and decide to stop unfair 
trade coming into this country, injuring our family farmers? No. Not 
with this trade strategy.
  This Congress and this administration need to understand that this is 
a very serious problem. Today's announcement of a $25.2 billion trade 
deficit for the month of July suggests again that we must take 
additional action. As we head towards the December meeting of the World 
Trade Organization, and as we see this morning's announcement about the 
trade deficit, I hope meetings here in the Congress, and with the 
administration, will allow us to develop a trade strategy that better 
represents this country's economic interests, stands up for this 
country's producers, and demands open foreign markets.
  Mr. President, I know the Senator from Vermont wants to speak on the 
bill that is going to be pending so at this point let me yield the 
floor.

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