On the recordJune 12, 2018
one of the great honors in this body is to bring a contrasting point of view to the topic of the day. I hope to do that today. Many colleagues in this body have voiced concerns on both sides of the aisle, frankly, about President Trump--what President Trump is doing to try to create a more level playing field for our workers and businesses. They are nervous about his negotiating style, about things he says, what he is trying to do with our allies, our adversaries, and all around the world. People in this body worry sometimes it is going to create a trade war. Colleagues, I have worked in the trade environment internationally most of my career. I have sourced products all over the world. I shipped products all over the world. I can tell you, for a fact, that for the last 40 years we have been in a trade war. In that time, America has helped develop the Third World and reduce poverty largely because of an imbalanced trade agreement that we made with pretty much each country around the world, and we did that intentionally, not by accident. It was out of our good will that we set up trade deals that granted access to our markets while denying access to other markets around the world. Why did we do that? When China was a $1 trillion economy, that made sense. We wanted to help them develop economically. Now that they are a $12 trillion economy, it no longer makes sense. When Japan was rebuilding after World War II, of course we wanted to help them rebuild.…
