[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 14 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1284-S1285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DORGAN (for himself and Mrs. Clinton):
  S. 355. A bill to require Congress to impose limits on United States 
foreign debt, to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, there are many issues we confront these 
days that are significant and serious. I wanted to bring one to the 
attention of the Chamber as I introduce legislation.
  I send a bill to the desk and ask for its appropriate referral on 
behalf of myself and Senator Clinton.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately 
referred.

[[Page S1285]]

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this legislation deals with trade. Let me 
describe what was announced this morning by the administration.
  Last year's trade deficit was $618 billion. You can see from this 
chart what has happened in the last 8 or 9 years. Our trade deficit has 
gone in the red by a dramatic amount, ending up at $618 billion for 
2004.
  What does that mean? That means we purchased from other countries 
$618 billion worth of goods more than we sold to other countries. In 
other words, every single day, 7 days a week, $1.8 billion leaves this 
country and goes into foreign hands to pay for goods that we purchased 
from abroad.
  As a result, foreign entities have $2.5 trillion worth of claims 
against our assets, our property, our stocks, and our assets. We are, 
with our trade policies, selling America.
  With China alone, we have a $161 billion trade deficit. This is 
unbelievably out of balance. We purchase China's trinkets, trousers, 
shirts, and shoes. Now they're making plans to ship Chinese automobiles 
to this country.
  By the way, as I told my colleagues before, in the last trade 
agreement with China we agreed they could charge a tariff on imported 
U.S. cars which is 10 times higher than the tariff we can charge on 
Chinese cars sold in the United States.
  Who did that? I don't know; some trade negotiator.
  It is the same old story with cars from China, cars from Korea, wheat 
to China, beef to Japan. It is the same old story.
  I mentioned to my colleagues many times what Will Rogers said in the 
1930s: ``The United States of America has never lost a war and never 
won a conference.'' He said we can't send negotiators to Costa Rica and 
come back with our shirts on. He surely must have been thinking about 
the people who had been negotiating trade agreements that resulted in 
these kinds of deficits.
  Now our trade deficit on a yearly basis is over 5 percent of our 
gross domestic product. Who holds this debt? Japan holds $715 billion 
of asset claims against our country, and China, $191 billion.
  Does anybody think this is healthy for our country? This kind of 
trade deficit and combined trade debt is going to injure America's 
future economic growth and continue to accelerate the movement of U.S. 
jobs overseas. That is what is behind all of these numbers.
  American corporations in recent decades have discovered that you can 
move technology and capital at the speed of light. And they have 
discovered there are a billion people in other parts of the world who 
are willing to work for 30 cents an hour. When you can ship technology 
and capital to someone overseas willing to work for 30 cents an hour, 
you begin to hollow out the manufacturing sector in this country.
  The news this morning of the largest trade deficit in the history of 
this country is sober news. This town will sleep through it once again. 
The White House will sleep through it, and so will the Congress. It 
doesn't matter much to most people.
  We have a debt limit in this country that says once the government 
borrows a certain amount, we have to have a debate, and vote on it. 
Otherwise, you can't go any further.
  But there is no trade debt limit. Whatever the trade debt is, it is. 
Katy bar the door, no matter how high it is. There is no requirement to 
do anything about it.

  The legislation I introduced, along with my colleague Senator 
Clinton, will establish a trade debt limit and a trade deficit limit. 
When the trade deficit exceeds 5 percent of our gross domestic product, 
then it requires certain things. It is an alarm clock that requires the 
administration's trade review group to have an emergency meeting, and 
within 45 days the administration and the trade ambassador have to 
submit to Congress a plan to reduce the trade deficit.
  Somebody someplace, someday, some way has to decide the current 
situation can't continue. This is all about jobs and future economic 
opportunity. This is real, and it is immediate. And we have to do 
something about it.
  That is why we have introduced this legislation. This country has 
been in a deep sleep about an abiding trade problem in which we link 
with other countries in bilateral agreements. In almost every case 
these are not mutually beneficial. Instead, the agreements are 
beneficial to them and detrimental to us. Yet, we have people on street 
corners chanting ``free trade.''
  I think trade is fine, I think fair trade is important, and I think 
expanding trade is valuable. But I believe free trade, if it means a 
trade agreement which undercuts this country's ability to compete, free 
trade which pulls the rug out from under our workers, and establishes 
conditions under which we cannot compete, is wrong for this country.
  I will not go through again the list of issues of potato flakes going 
to Korea, beef to Japan, wheat to China. I could go through dozens of 
them. I will not do that again today. My point is that at some point 
somebody has to have the backbone and the will and the nerve to stand 
up for this country's economic interests. That has not been done for a 
long while. It needs to be done now because this trade deficit has 
reached crisis proportions.
  One final chart: Some said that last month the trade deficit was 
actually a little better than the month before. This is a town of 
warped reality on a lot of issues. Let me describe what has happened to 
our trade deficit month by month since 1998. It does not take a sharp 
eye to see what is happening.
  This trade deficit is growing. It is dangerous. It is harmful to the 
long-term economic interests of this country. We have to do something 
about it.
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