Bill Pascrell: “We cannot continue down this path. Our trade deficit is unsustainable. We must begin to tackle it if we want to create…”

“We cannot continue down this path. Our trade deficit is unsustainable. We must begin to tackle it if we want to create jobs here in the United States and remain a prosperous country in the future. There's no silver bullet out there that will balance the books, which is why a comprehensive study of the problem and recommendations for policy solutions, which is proscribed in this legislation specifically, is very necessary. The commission will look at many of the tactics we know our trading partners use in order to place their exports at an advantage and in order that they have played and gamed the system to our disadvantage: Foreign currency manipulation, we've addressed it in some esoteric statements now and then. But we know what China is doing, and it hurts us in terms of what the Americas are trying to do. Tariff and nontariff barriers, just mentioned before in the previous legislation by the gentleman from Illinois. Foreign subsidization of manufacturing, other countries have different taxing methodologies than we do. They subsidize their industries. How can our industries compete against that unless we address that particular issue, which we're afraid to do. Both sides of the aisle are afraid to address the real issues on trade and the weak environmental and labor standards.”