Record Trade Deficit + Campaign Season = Infuriating Statements

From the LA Times this morning, an article on the trade deficit for August. Both imports and exports were up slightly from the July figures, and the trade deficit itself was $69.9 billion. But it was not so much the trade figures that interested me (after all, the trade deficit has hit record highs repeatedly lately), but this statement from Rep. Marcy Kaptur:

“We are not only shipping jobs overseas, we are shipping billions of dollars overseas,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D‐​Ohio), a critic of Bush administration policies calling for free‐​trade pacts. “We are exporting our jobs and our wealth, not our products.”

We are shipping billions of dollars overseas? On net, the United States must, by definition, be a net importer of capital to balance the current account. I won’t belabor that point, though, since my colleague Dan Griswold has covered the topic more than ably here).


Kaptur, currently seeking reelection in Ohio’s 9th district, is one of the least trade‐​friendly members of Congress, according to last year’s rating of the 108th Congress (available here). Her press release on the trade deficit seems to boast of her being a “leading critic of “free trade” policies” (note the quotation marks around free trade, signifying, I assume, that free trade is a quaint concept).


I understand that it is election time and all, but I find it very frustrating that marketing oneself as someone who will fight against free trade — a poverty fighter, growth promoter and trust‐​buster all in one — is perceived to be a winning strategy.