U.S. Trade Deficit with China
Kucinich gave the following speech in Congress on July 26, 2005:
Speaking in opposition to H.R. 3283, United States Trade Rights Enforcement Act, Congressman Kucinich said:
"Madam Speaker, we have been here before. Congress has often resorted to bills and memoranda of understanding concerning China. But the U.S. trade deficit with China has continued to increase. So I am not going to stand here and argue process. We can look at the history and the fact of the whole architecture of agreements that we have had with China, memoranda of understanding, concerns that Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle brought to this floor in order to try to manage United States trade with China.
"Remember, we were told that a memorandum of understanding on prison labor with China would remove their competitive advantage and restore balanced trade. But the U.S. trade deficit with China worsened.
"Remember the agreement to reaffirm the 1992 market access memorandum of understanding. We passed that, but the U.S. trade deficit with China grew worse.
"Remember China's agreement to lower tariffs on imports. They cut the tariffs from 42 percent to 23 percent, then to 17 percent, then to 12 percent. But the U.S. trade deficit with China got worse.
"Remember, China stopped arbitrary limits on maintaining agricultural imports. That was supposed to be a boon for the United States. But the U.S. trade deficit with China got worse. That is exactly the story that we see with NAFTA and the WTO and, this week, CAFTA.
"Why does the U.S. trade deficit with China keep getting worse no matter what we do? No matter what our best intentions are? The U.S. trade deficit with China keeps getting worse because labor costs in China are so much cheaper.
"Hello? Wake up, America. We are giving away our jobs here, and the central issue is the cheap labor in China. You can pass all of these agreements you want. They are not going to amount to a hill of beans, because the fact of the matter is that the U.S. trade deficit in China will continue to grow, it will approach $200 billion, as long as the labor costs are cheaper. That is why we are losing jobs. That is why the trade deficit is growing. That is why we are losing market share. With all due respect to my good friend from Pennsylvania, I do not see this bill amounting to anything. Vote against it."
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