Establishing Emergency Trade Deficit Commission
Floor Speech
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Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I'm pleased that we're having this debate today about the importance of trade for America's manufacturing sector. Given my extensive experience in manufacturing, I'm pleased to provide my firsthand familiarity with what makes business successful and what creates jobs.
My own experience tells me that international trade is vital to the success of America's manufacturing sector. In my home State of Kentucky, nearly 50,000 manufacturing jobs are dependent on exports. The simple fact is that 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside the United States, and the fastest growing markets are outside our borders. So success in those markets is critical to growing our manufacturing sector and creating good paying jobs.
As the President has noted, America's exports of manufactured goods support one out of every five manufacturing jobs, and those jobs pay 15 percent more than average. We simply must increase exports, and that's the key to any debate about the trade deficit.
If we're going to be successful in growing U.S. exports and reducing the deficit, we need to identify the best practices for doing so. We have real world results that we can use to identify these best practices, and these facts show clearly that there has been no more effective way to reduce the trade deficit and create U.S. jobs than negotiating new trade agreements to open foreign markets to U.S. exports.
The benefits of CAFTA to the United States manufacturing sectors and workers are clear. Because of this agreement, we swung a negative trade balance, a trade deficit in manufactured goods of $1.1 billion, to a trade surplus of $1.9 billion, and we already have a surplus of $1.3 billion so far this year.
Madam Speaker, in the manufacturing world, we'd never base our best practices on just one successful outcome. Fortunately, the success of the Central America Free Trade Agreement is not the only example we have. The United States has implemented trade agreements with eight other countries under the Trade Promotion Authority. In 2009, the U.S. had an overall trade surplus of over $27 billion with these eight countries, and so far in 2010, we have a surplus of over $14 billion.
And the results for the American manufacturing sector are even stronger. In 2009, the United States had a trade surplus of over $29 billion with these countries, and in 2010, $16 billion. This is a track record that firmly establishes the aggressive pursuit of trade agreements as the best practice for increasing U.S. exports and lowering the trade deficit.
Given the ambitious track record of success of our trade agreements, I don't think we need another government commission. However, I understand that for some, the facts I've cited aren't enough and, therefore, I do rise in support of this bill.
I want to help those with doubts about the benefits of trade agreements to see how vital they are to the success of American manufacturing, so I'll support this legislation in an effort to educate others on these benefits, the benefits of well-executed, bilateral, and free trade agreements properly structured between the partners.
I fully expect the commission will reach the same conclusion that I and many others on both sides of the aisle have already reached. However, I'm concerned that we can't simply wait for the commission to do its analysis.
As the President has noted, other countries are racing ahead of us in negotiating agreements that benefit their workers while we sit on the sidelines. That's why I strongly support the President's call to resolve the outstanding issues around the U.S.-South Korea trade agreement.
My colleagues and I on this side of the aisle stand ready to work with the President to implement these best practices and prepare not only the South Korea agreement for congressional approval, but to prepare the agreements with Colombia and Panama as well. I'm confident these agreements will be just as successful for American workers in the U.S. manufacturing sector as our prior agreements.
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