James Traficant: “I believe our trade policy is now a national security problem, and no one is looking at it. Our trade deficits continue…”

“I believe our trade policy is now a national security problem, and no one is looking at it. Our trade deficits continue to explode. Our negative balance of payments at record levels. And everybody idealistically pushing a button that I believe in all practical purposes is not working. Quite frankly, many of our competitors simply do not open their markets. China, Europe, Japan, every President since Nixon threatened Japan with sanctions, including the current President, President Clinton. If every President had to threaten Japan every 2 years with sanctions, it is evident to me, just the son of a truck driver, that Japan has never complied, Japan has never opened their markets, and we are a bunch of fools. China has a 34 percent tariff on most of our goods. They are selling tennis shoes, they were called sneakers in the old days, for $150 that cost 17 cents a pair to make over there. I do not see any signs in K Mart and Wal-Mart that say, these sneakers only cost $8 because they are only costing 17 cents in China. They are getting every penny they can out of it. They are squeezing the Buffalo on the nickel.”