Byron Dorgan: “Today we had a new trade deficit figure released, about 3 hours ago. It shows our merchandise trade deficit in the past…”

“Today we had a new trade deficit figure released, about 3 hours ago. It shows our merchandise trade deficit in the past month was $66 billion--in 1 month. The reason I want to show the results of our trade policy is we now have proposals in front of us for free trade agreements. We have Colombia, Peru, negotiations with South Korea, Thailand, and others. We have been through a period when there has been this mantra, this chant, as it is, about free trade. This chart shows what is happening to trade. In 1995, 12 years ago, we had a $174 billion trade deficit. Now it is $836 billion. Think of that: Every single day we wake up in this country, we import over $2 billion more in goods from overseas than we are able to sell abroad.”