William Tauzin: “So the question before the House soon will be will we rubber-stamp existing trade policy? Is it so good, is it working…”

“So the question before the House soon will be will we rubber-stamp existing trade policy? Is it so good, is it working so well for the American people that we should say, hey, let us just keep doing more of the same, let us give President Bush total authority to negotiate these agreements in secret, then bring it back here for an up or down vote, no amendments allowed? Let us look at the result of our existing trade policy. Our trade deficit is the largest in the history of the world. It has gone from $66 billion in 1991, 1.7 percent of our gross domestic product, to $417 billion last year, 4.1 percent of our gross domestic product. That is pretty extraordinary. People say, well, wait a minute, our exports are expanding. They are right. Our exports over the last decade have gone up 17 percent; but guess what, the imports went up 44 percent because of this misbegotten trade policy. Current estimates say that our trade deficit could reach $460 billion by the end of this year, $536 billion by 2003, and their prediction, it could reach 7 percent of gross domestic product, $800 billion by the year 2005.”