Byron Dorgan: “I would love, just once, to ask our trade negotiators to wear a uniform so at least they know on whose behalf they are…”

“I would love, just once, to ask our trade negotiators to wear a uniform so at least they know on whose behalf they are negotiating. I am so tired of what is happening in international trade negotiations. Will Rogers said, 70 years ago, that the United States of America has never lost a war and never won a conference. He must surely have been thinking about our trade negotiators. It doesn't matter what it is--the United States-Canada FTA, CAFTA, NAFTA, WTO--all our negotiators have to do is show up and lose. They do it routinely. This isn't a partisan issue, international trade. I think both Republicans and Democrats have let this country down. We need a new trade strategy. Globalization is here, that is true. We are not going to turn back globalization, but we at least, by God, ought to have rules that are fair to this country and to the workers of this country and to the businesses of this country that do business here and stay here. I have one final point. This Senate did not even have the strength and the backbone to at least shut down the perverse tax incentives that reward companies that export U.S. jobs. If we cannot take the first baby step in the right direction, it is a pretty hopeless situation. We will have an opportunity to address these issues next year. I hope Republicans and Democrats today will decide in unison that exporting these jobs hurts this country, and there are policies and approaches we can do to change the fortune of this country's economic future.”