Marcy Kaptur: “In my own State, 41,000 jobs lost to trade in the last decade, a number in wood products, some in textiles, others in…”

“In my own State, 41,000 jobs lost to trade in the last decade, a number in wood products, some in textiles, others in other industries. This is a loss that did not need to happen. We did not need to lose these industrial wage jobs with good benefits to unfair trade. But unfortunately it was done under auspices of United States law. That is, agreements that were pushed through, started in the Reagan administration, continued in the first Bush administration, brought to fruition by the Clinton administration and now the next Bush administration, the current Bush administration wants to expand on those failing policies. Think of that. How much bigger do they want the trade deficit to be? How many more millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs do they want to export? There are not many left. We already know that the deficit is not sustainable. The growth of our merchandise trade deficits over the last 10 years, 1990 to 2001, with our free trade partners, Mexico, 1,861 percent growth; China 713 percent growth; the WTO membership generally that is from the Uruguay Round, 300 percent; the Caribbean Basin Parity Act, 131 percent; and sub-Saharan Africa, 64 percent.”