“It Is Time to Stand Up For American Workers and Demand a New Course for U.S. Trade Policy”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, senior Democrat on the Ways & Means Committee Trade Subcommittee, said today that the trade deficit figures released today by the U.S. Department of Commerce served as a stark reminder that America is losing its competitive edge in international trade.  The nation’s trade deficit for April 2006 rose to $63.4 billion, the sixth highest monthly deficit in history.  At this pace, the final trade deficit for 2006 will top $800 billion, significantly more than last year’s $716 shortfall, which is the largest annual deficit on record.

Yet again, America’s trade deficit widened sharply with major trading partners.  America’s deficit with China alone surged to $17 billion in April, building on a previous deficit of $15.6 billion in March.
 
“This Administration is setting records in the wrong categories – trade deficits and national debt – weakening the position of our manufacturers, farmers and businesses in international competition,” cautioned Rep. Cardin.  “These figures are a jarring reminder that our nation needs a new approach to its trade policy.”

Congressional Democrats have called for a new course in US trade policy including:

• Creation of a Congressional Trade Enforcer (“CTE”)  to promote and protect the rights of American workers, farmers and businesses, so that instead of exporting jobs, the United States will be exporting goods and services. 
 
• Aggressive enforcement of U.S. rights under trade agreements – The Bush Administration filed only 13 cases in the WTO in the last five years, as compared to the Clinton Administration, which brought an average of 11 cases per year.
 
• Filing a case on Chinese currency manipulation within the WTO
 
• Strengthening US anti-dumping enforcement

• Applying countervailing duties to non-market economies

• Ensuring international agreements do not weaken US trade remedy law

--##--