Wendy Sherman: “over the last decades, we have moved from the largest creditor Nation to the largest debtor Nation in the world. We now…”

“over the last decades, we have moved from the largest creditor Nation to the largest debtor Nation in the world. We now run a trade deficit of nearly half a trillion dollars every year. The dollar is on the road to crashing sometime in the next decade or so, and this bill makes it all more certain and makes it happen faster. It provides access to the American markets to those with the very lowest labor standards and the lowest environmental standards. It will pressure us to see our trade deficit even get larger, or to cut our own environmental standards, labor standards and wage rates in order to compete. It deprives us of the opportunity to demand trade bills that are fair and to involve Congress in making sure that the trade bills do not simply increase trade, but increase exports more than imports. The nonlegal barriers imposed, particularly by China, but other countries as well, will ensure large trade deficits if we pass Fast Track now.”