Marcy Kaptur: “the United States has just announced the second highest monthly trade deficit for this year, $60 billion. That is just…”

“the United States has just announced the second highest monthly trade deficit for this year, $60 billion. That is just in the month of May. Our Nation continues to import more goods and services than we export at alarming rates, with a record $192 billion more coming into this country in the earlier part of this year than going out. This particular chart shows the top category of concern, imported petroleum, which has continued to rise, including in this Presidential administration, despite President Bush's statement at the beginning of his administration that we have a serious problem. America is addicted to oil, which is being imported from some of the most unstable parts of the world. He said that, and yet he continued to allow the import of more petroleum. Americans are watching as our government does nothing to curb these growing trade deficits, with their accompanying job losses, deteriorating labor conditions and community washouts that U.S. trade policy leaves in its wake. A bill I have sponsored, H.R. 169, the Balancing Trade Act of 2007, requires the President, if over 3 consecutive calendar years the United States has a trade deficit with another country that totals over $10 billion, to take the necessary steps to create a trading relationship that would eliminate or substantially reduce that trade deficit by entering into better agreements with that country.”