Marcy Kaptur: “I would say to our colleagues this evening, think once, think twice about U.S. trade with China, particularly in…”

“I would say to our colleagues this evening, think once, think twice about U.S. trade with China, particularly in agriculture. Recently I read a fascinating report prepared by Dr. Charles McMillian, former editor of the Harvard Business Review. He is a man who understands numbers. And he says, think once, think twice. China has produced an annual glut of agricultural commodities for over a generation. In fact, the United States has registered a consistent and growing deficit in agriculture with China in two-thirds of all agricultural groupings. It is true with pork. We produced a lot of that in my corner of Ohio. It is true with corn. It is true with citrus, with vegetables, with fish. Just go down the categories. China, in fact, in the last decade, had an average annual surplus, that means they are sending more out than taking goods in, in global agricultural trade of $4 billion annually. Just last year, in 1999, the rate of that is increasing to where just in 1999 they had a $4 billion surplus of global agricultural trade over what they imported. So their advantage, essentially, is increasing. They are rapidly expanding the quantity, the quality, and the composition of products that are being exported to our country, everything from ketchup to rice and, for the first time, in 1999, cotton. Now, China recorded an overall advantage with the United States in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1993, and 1999 in agriculture.”