Published September 1999 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Digging Out of the U.S. Trade Deficit
The U.S. Department of Commerce recently released trade deficit figures for the first six months of this year. Unfortunately, those statistics were not encouraging. According to the report, for five of the first six months of the year, the gap between what U.S. companies and consumers spent on imports and the amount that foreign countries spent on American products reached record levels. This report is further proof that U.S. trade policies need serious examination and readjustment. For too long, American industries have battled unfair trade practices by foreign competitors. This and past Administrations -- both Democratic and Republican --have allowed the nation's trade deficit to soar. As a result of Administration policies that reflected State Department concerns about the economies of foreign nations, American industries and American workers have suffered. To address this situation, and to find ways to reverse the trade deficit, I authored legislation last fall to create the Trade Deficit Review Commission. Recently, this 12-member, bipartisan body began the process of studying the causes and consequences of, and looking for solutions to, U.S. trade deficits. Clearly, growing and persistent trade deficits have reached the point of requiring this kind of examination. Furthermore, conventional wisdom has been placed into question recently concerning the trade deficits. For instance, the widely held assumption that trade deficits would disappear or become inconsequential when the national budget was put into balance is clearly wrong. The Trade Deficit Review Commission, which has a one-year lifetime and is required to hold at least four field hearings outside of Washington, D.C., consists of an excellent mix of men and women, including business, labor, and investment executives. These men and women bring to the Commission a variety of perspectives. The members include academic figures of national repute, former Cabinet and Federal Reserve officials, and former Senate and House staff members who have been central architects of virtually every trade bill in the last 20 years. The intersecting issues that this Commission will examine have been marching across the front pages of America's newspapers. Those issues include such topics as China, steel, technology, agriculture, trading blocs, foreign subsidies, and so on. These are important issues on which the country needs clear and thorough guidance. I have every confidence that this Commission, if it can forge a strong consensus on future policies, will perform a very valuable service. For the sake of our economic future, our immense trade deficits must be reversed. September 8, 1999