[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 85 (Monday, June 24, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S5925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TRADE DEFICITS

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, last Wednesday the Commerce Department 
reported that the monthly trade deficit for April 2002 was $35.5 
billion. That deficit is for both goods and services. The deficit in 
goods alone was $39.9 billion.
  Every single day, 7 days a week, we import $1 billion more in goods 
than we export, and we charge the difference. What does that mean on an 
annual basis? Deficits on the order of $400 billion dollars, and 
climbing.
  As you can see in this chart, the trade deficit is totally out of 
control. In fact, when we try to put in the 2002 numbers, we will be 
somewhere off the chart, around $480 billion.
  These trade deficits are to a large extent the result of bad trade 
agreements, particularly those entered into under fast-track authority. 
This Senate, without my vote, just embraced fast-track trade authority 
so that the President can negotiate another trade agreement. I didn't 
believe President Clinton should have that trade authority, and I don't 
believe this President should either.
  This next chart shows the increases in trade deficits as we entered 
into one bad trade agreement after another. You see what has happened 
since 1976. The deficit line goes up, up, up, and up--the highest trade 
deficits in human history.
  Nobody seems to think much of it. You didn't hear one whisper last 
Wednesday when it was announced we had the largest monthly trade 
deficit in the history of this country.
  Where are all the exports that we were promised as a result of fast-
track trade agreements? Do you know what our number one export item has 
become? American jobs. That is the biggest export as a result of the 
trade agreements. You can see from the trade deficits we have that 
these trade agreements simply aren't working.

  Who pays these deficits? The American people have to pay for these 
deficits at some point. You can make the case with respect to budget 
deficits that it is money we owe to ourselves. You can't make that case 
with the trade deficit. The trade deficit we owe to others, to people 
living in other countries. We will pay trade deficits with a lower 
standard of living. That is why it is so dangerous.
  Today, as I speak, the financial markets are very unsettled. Day 
after day after day, we see a further collapse of the stock market, the 
financial markets.
  Why is that the case? Because there is a sense that our fundamentals 
don't work. We are deep in red ink, drowning in trade deficits, and 
nobody here seems to give a darn at all. It is dangerous for our 
country.
  Our negotiators go overseas and negotiate a trade deal, and in an 
instant they lose. I have said it 100 times, but it is worth saying 
again, in the words of Will Rogers: the United States of America has 
never lost a war and never won a conference. He must surely have been 
thinking about our trade negotiators.
  We have bad agreements in 100 different ways: Bad agreements with 
China, with Japan, South Korea, Europe, and others. With Europe we have 
a dispute over market access for U.S. beef. The EU does not let in our 
beef when the cattle have been fed hormones, even though there is no 
evidence to support this ban. So we take the EU to the WTO, and we 
argue that we are entitled to sell our beef in Europe. The WTO agrees, 
and tells the EU to let our beef into their market. And the EU just 
thumbs its nose, and says forget it.
  So we say: All right, we are going to get tough, and retaliate 
against you. And how does the United States get tough? We say: We will 
slap you with penalties on truffles, goose liver, and Roquefort cheese. 
That is enough to put the fear of God into almost any country.
  Well, when Europe wants to retaliate against our country over a trade 
dispute, as they did in the case of U.S. tariffs against European 
steel, Europe goes after hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. steel, 
textiles, and citrus products. We, on the other hand, are retaliating 
by saying: We will nail you on truffles, goose liver, and Roquefort 
cheese.
  I am sorry, but where is our backbone? Does this country have any 
guts to stand up for its producers and its workers?
  So last month, we had the largest monthly trade deficit in human 
history. Does anybody here care? I think eventually we will have to 
reconcile for this failure in policy. It is not just a failure with 
this administration--although this administration certainly has played 
a part--it is a failure of past administrations and every 
administration going back 20, 30 years. They have embraced policies 
that have us in a situation where we have long-term, relentless 
deficits with the Japanese, $60 billion, $70 billion a year every 
single year with Japan. And 14 years after we had a beef agreement with 
Japan, there is a 38.5 percent tariff on every pound of beef going into 
Japan.
  I mentioned the Japanese beef agreement, which was described as a big 
success by those who negotiated. Yet, 12 and 14 years later, we have 
this huge tariff on every pound of American beef going into Japan. 
Nobody says much about it. We have a large trade deficit with Japan.
  We have 630,000 cars coming here from Korea every year. We are able 
to ship them only 2,800. When you raise that issue, and point out that 
they are shipping us 630,000 Korean cars into the American marketplace 
and allowing only 2,800 American cars into Korea, they say: yes, but 
your exports used to be 1,300 cars and now they have doubled. So if you 
hear trade negotiators talk and they say ``we doubled the amount of 
American cars we shipped to Korea''--well, yes, from 1,300 to 2,800. 
But the Koreans send us 630,000 in a year.
  Our trade policies are failing badly. Nobody seems to care much about 
it. There is not a whisper about this huge trade deficit on the floor 
of the Senate--just following the Senate agreeing to extend fast track 
trade authority to the President.
  Because the time is limited, and we are going to the defense 
authorization bill, I will defer a longer speech on international trade 
to a later time. But Mr. President, it is fascinating to me that last 
Thursday we heard the announcement of the largest trade deficit in 
history, and you could not hear a voice in this town raise a point that 
this is a serious problem for this country's economy. It is long past 
the time to have a real debate about our country's trade policies and 
about these growing, relentless trade deficits that cause great danger 
to the American economy.
  I yield the floor.

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