Sherrod Brown: “1 year and 1 month ago, President Bush signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a cousin of the North American…”

“1 year and 1 month ago, President Bush signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a cousin of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which would extend the same NAFTA- type trade provisions to six countries, five in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Unlike every other trade agreement which President Bush has signed, Morocco, Chile, Singapore and Australia, which were signed and voted on by Congress within 60 days, the Central American Free Trade Agreement has simply languished in the halls of Congress. The President has not brought it forward to vote on, in large part because the people of this body, a majority of the Members of Congress, will not vote for it. And here is why. It is pretty clear, Mr. Speaker that our trade policy is not working. In 1992, the year I ran for Congress, we had a $38 billion trade deficit, meaning we sold $38 billion less than we imported, exported less than we imported. $38 billion. Today, or 2004, that number had increased to $618 billion, from $38 billion to $618 billion in a dozen years. Mr. Speaker, maybe that is just numbers, but when you look at the trade deficit, and you know what it means, it has meant in large part a huge loss of manufacturing jobs. Just in the last 6 years these States in red have all lost at least 20 percent of their manufacturing. Michigan, 210,000; Ohio, 216-; Illinois, 224-; Pennsylvania, 200-; Mississippi and Alabama 130,000; North Carolina, 228,000.…”