Kaptur Statement on Latest U.S. Trade Deficit

KAPTUR STATEMENT ON LATEST U.S TRADE DEFICIT

‘Freedom for America's 21st Century means an America that Exports more than she Imports'

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) released the following statement on the latest trade deficit numbers released by the Department of Commerce today. The trade deficit hit $62 billion in March, which is almost $10 billion more than the previous year's monthly deficit of $53.7 billion. The deficit for the first three months of this year is already running at an annual rate of $785 billion, up by 8.4 percent from last year's all-time high of 723.6 billion. The statement follows:

"Freedom for America's 21st Century should mean an America that exports more than she imports. As industry after industry is downsized and outsourced, America hemorrhages good jobs while the middle class disappears before our very eyes. For every billion dollars of deficit, more than 10,000 jobs are lost in this country. And, if shipping our jobs overseas were not enough, the American people get to foot the bill for billions of dollars in interest payments on increasing U.S. debt being owed to foreign interests.

"It is time for the Administration to regain control of this runaway train and take a good hard, look at the ill-conceived, lopsided trade agreements that export jobs and import red ink to our trade ledgers."

Kaptur has introduced the Balancing Trade Act of 2005 (HR 4405) which will require the President to take action when America faces deficits like we see today. It would mandate that the President correct these imbalanced trading relationships when our deficit with them would equal $10 billion for 3 consecutive years.

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/PressRelease.aspx?NewsID=1506