John Sarbanes: “Of course, the assertion used to be made, well, if we lost jobs in certain industries because our technology was always…”

“Of course, the assertion used to be made, well, if we lost jobs in certain industries because our technology was always advancing, we would be out doing the more complex, complicated production techniques and therefore we would gain jobs in those industries. And if you think about it, there is something to that theory. But what has happened, in my perception, that undercuts that theory and why we are running these large trade deficits as a consequence is, first of all, as capital moves freely, capital moves into these undeveloped countries where there are no environmental standards and there are no real working conditions. So then you have people who are working 11, 12 hours a day for 15 cents an hour but the machines they are working on, because the capital has come in, are the same machines that people would be working on in this country. And so the ability of capital to move that way makes it even more imperative that these environmental and working condition issues be included within the trade negotiations.”