John Sarbanes: “The imports that were coming in were causing dislocation in our economy, no question about it. But at the same time we…”

“The imports that were coming in were causing dislocation in our economy, no question about it. But at the same time we were gaining a plus from the exports. In fact, there were a little more exports than there were imports. What has happened, as the Senator from South Carolina points out, we are now importing far, far, far more than we are exporting. In fact, as he points out with respect to trade goods it has been an almost $2 trillion deficit since 1975. All of those imports are costing people jobs. So the displacement of jobs taking place by the increase in imports far, far, far exceeds the additional jobs gained from the expansion of exports. To the extent we run these trade deficits then we end up losing our position as a creditor nation. This is a devastating chart, showing the United States in a creditor position in 1980, and look what has happened to us. We have come down just like this, and by the end of the year we will be at $1 trillion deficit debtor status.”