That level of trade deficit throttles real growth in our country and continues the unfortunate path of selling out America. We are not winning the global trade war, we are losing it badly.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Today, we have a trade regime which has led to the largest trade deficits this country has ever experienced.
As the U.S. trade deficit, and the portion of that deficit attributed to China, continue to grow, our own economy is at risk of losing its reputation as a leader in world trade.
We are on pace this year to have a trade deficit that is larger than $800 billion. We have never faced that before, but we continue to put forward trade agreements like these that leave us naked to competition that is neither free nor fair.
America's largest trade deficit is with China, a nation that enjoys Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the U.S. and ties its currency to the dollar to make it a more competitive trading partner.
Foreign trade clearly holds down the cost of products we buy.
We aren't leveraging this great economic engine, the strongest economy in the world. And yet we have this totally weak response. We import $500 billion a year more in products than we export.
The Bush Administration and the Congress have to stop ignoring this crisis in international trade. The longer we ignore it, the more American jobs will move overseas. It's just that simple.
Instead of trade policy that is beneficial to American businesses and workers as well as our trade partners, we have a flawed trade policy that hurts all parties.
To finance this trade deficit, the U.S. has to borrow from the rest of the world or sell American assets like stocks, businesses, and real estate to the rest of the world.
The trade deficit is the capital surplus and don't ever think of having a capital surplus as being a bad thing for our country.