Marcy Kaptur: “America is not winning on the global trade front. Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the United…”

“America is not winning on the global trade front. Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the United States has the largest trade deficit in our history. So many more imports are coming in here than exports, and every American can affirm that every time they go to shop. At $725 billion in the red in 2005, that is three-quarters of a trillion dollars, our trade deficit is growing at a rate of more than $1,500,000 every minute. This total is more than 18 percent higher than one year ago. Sectors such as agriculture, as well as manufacturing, which once sustained a thriving economy here, are now withering. For every billion dollars in deficit, we are shedding a minimum of over 10,000 jobs. Workers' wages are not rising, their pensions are being cut, health care costs are going up, and this is a major contributing factor. Our manufacturing sector is deteriorating. Since the year 2000, 3 million more manufacturing jobs, good jobs, have been outsourced. The 2005 deficit in autos, trucks and automotive parts is $138 billion, the worst ever. Those are dollars we used to put in our own pockets, the pockets of our workers, the pockets of our shareholders, the pockets of the executives. This industry was once at the cutting edge of the world and the mother of invention. Today, we have become an assembly line for imported parts. Our Trade Representative, Ambassador Portman, comes from my home State of Ohio.…”