When Congress and the President enacted NAFTA in 1994, membership in the WTO in 1995, and gave permanent normalized trade relations (PNTR) to China in 2000, they took away the final defenses this country had in defending its industry and standard of living.

Why did this happen? Failed intelligence: They did so with the belief that such policy would encourage exports out of this country and raise the standard of living in other countries. The results couldn’t have been more completely opposite.

Here are the facts since NAFTA passed:

We had a small trade surplus with Mexico in 1993 before signing onto NAFTA. By 2007, 14 years after signing NAFTA, that surplus turned into a $91 billion deficit with Mexico. The combined deficit with Canada and Mexico together increased to $190 billion – an astounding 691 percent increase.

In addition we have seen:

• 3 Million American manufacturing jobs lost
• $3 Trillion lost in trade deficits
• Borrowing as much as 53 percent of our Government debt from foreign countries
• Wages and working conditions in other countries remain as low or lower as before

These results speak that we are losing an Economic War: In a military war, the conquest is territory. In an economic war, the conquest is controlling the means of production and supply, market share and ultimately profits. Our current trade and economic policies are the equivalent of fighting a battle with toy guns.

We have pitted our best companies, technologies, scientists, engineers, and workers against non-market state-run countries that:

• Subsidize their industries
• Depress wages
• Restrict foreign investment and foreign competition
• Pay no benefits or pensions
• Engage in rampant counterfeiting
• Manipulate their currency

These actions by foreign governments for their home-grown companies make it impossible for US companies to compete as there is no level playing field. This is resulting in hundreds of bankruptcies, forced sellouts, forcing outsourcing of manufacturing and services, and totally dismantling our vaunted industrial base that produced our present wealth.

Yet amazingly, no one is changing any of our policies to protect ourselves from these predatory and destructive practices. No one is guarding the family jewels: The trade representatives that negotiated many of these deals had major conflicts of interest that went completely unaddressed.

Charlene Barshefsky’s (under Clinton) husband was on the payroll of Honda for Japan and Carla Hills (under Bush Sr.) husband was a registered foreign agent while a partner in two different firms representing Asian businesses! Trade representative Rob Portman (now a senator of Ohio) vowed to continue to fight for the same disastrous free trade policy – and he did.

After all this country has experienced, what more should it take for a reexamination of this posture?

Here are a few additional astounding specific examples that illustrate just how wrong-headed our trade policy has been to this point:

1. Anti-subsidy laws that protect US companies and workers from foreign subsidizing practices DO NOT apply to non-market economies such as China! Amazingly, it is therefore currently ILLEGAL for the US Government to act to protect US industry against Chinese subsidy practices.

2. Until recently the US Treasury Department COULD NOT hold China accountable for currency manipulation (and present measures will not do as much as they need to in order to correct the problem), which gives Chinese exporters an unfair subsidy over US manufacturers.

Hundreds of imbalances like these exist in our policy today, not the least of which is the subordination of our sovereignty to the WTO. We made a mistake going to war in Iraq with failed military intelligence. We are making the same mistake trying to compete in an Economic War also with failed intelligence about what is happening to us and what needs to be done. We are oblivious to our problems, their sources, and the solutions to correct them.

Let us recognize our mistakes and quickly change the policies that have produced such destructive results before we must resign ourselves to becoming a non-productive second class country with the economic profile of a colony.

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