John Sarbanes: “That is right. We are not driving the right trade bargains. Something is wrong with a trade policy that gives you this…”

“That is right. We are not driving the right trade bargains. Something is wrong with a trade policy that gives you this deterioration in your net foreign investment position. Something is wrong with a trade policy that takes the United States, in less than 20 years, from being the largest creditor nation in the world, in other words, people owe us, and in 20 years makes the United States the largest debtor nation in the world. Something is wrong. The Senator is absolutely right to focus on it. Everyone says, ``Well, we succeeded in selling $3 billion worth of airplanes to China on this visit that they had.'' Our trade imbalance with China is over $40 billion and increasing all the time. It is increasing all the time. It may soon surpass the trade deficit with Japan. The consequence is that we are selling to them far less--far, far, far less--than they are selling to us.”