Pelosi in 1996: U.S.-China Trade 'Is a Job Loser for the United States'; China's Tariffs 35% vs. Our 2% (June 27, 1996)

Long before tariffs became Donald Trump’s signature issue, Nancy Pelosi stood on the House floor and called America’s trade with China a jobs disaster. “The fact is that United States-China trade is a job loser for the United States,” then-Rep. Pelosi, D-Calif., said on June 27, 1996, according to the Congressional Record [1].

“If there is one message that I want our colleagues and our constituents to understand today is that on this day, your Member of Congress could have drawn the line to say to the President of the United States, do something about this United States-China trade relationship. It is a job loser for the United States,” she said [1].

The video above shows Pelosi’s remarks during the House debate over China’s trade status on June 27, 1996. Quotes are from the Congressional Record, the Clerk of the House and the Federal Register [1][2][3].

She framed the vote as a test. “Because today Members of Congress will be asked to set down a marker: How far does China have to go? How much more repression, how big a trade deficit and loss of jobs to the American worker, and how much more dangerous proliferation has to exist before Members of this House of Representatives will say, ‘I will not endorse the status quo’?” Pelosi said [1].

”Is That Reciprocal?”

Pelosi laid out the numbers as she saw them. “Right now we have a $34 billion trade deficit with China, the 1995 figure. It will be over $40 billion for 1996. Since the Tiananmen Square massacre, this figure has increased 1,000 percent, from $3.5 billion then to about $34 billion now,” she said [1].

“In terms of tariffs, I think it is interesting to note that the average United States MFN tariff on Chinese goods coming into the United States is 2 percent; whereas the average Chinese MFN tariff on United States goods going into China is 35 percent. Is that reciprocal?” Pelosi asked [1].

“Therefore, only 2 percent of United States exports are allowed into China. On the other hand, the United States allows China to flood our markets with one-third of their exports,” she said [1].

”The Biggest and Cruelest Hoax of All”

“In terms of jobs, this is the biggest and cruelest hoax of all,” Pelosi said. “The President in his statement requesting this special waiver said that China trade supports 170,000 jobs in the United States, whereas our imports from China support at least 10 million jobs.” [1]

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., jumped in. “The gentlewoman is saying that 170,000 jobs are created in the United States by the China trade but are there not many more jobs that are lost in the United States?” [1]

“That is the point I was getting to,” Pelosi answered. “Our colleagues on the other side of this issue will say that exports to China have increased 3 times in the last 10 years. They have. But they fail to mention that imports from China have increased 11 times, thereby leading to this huge trade deficit.” [1]

“Made in Xi’an Province”

Pelosi warned that China was taking American know-how. “If you want to sell to China, bring United States products into China, the Chinese insist that you open a factory there. They misappropriate your technology, open factories of their own,” she said [1].

“The most serious of these transfers of technology are in the airline industry, where tail sections of the Boeing 737’s were mostly made in Wichita, KS. Now they are made in Xi’an Province where workers make $50 a month and the transfer of the technology and the transfer of the jobs has taken place,” Pelosi said [1].

“So we are exporting, not lowtechnology jobs and textile jobs, we are exporting our technology and high paying jobs,” she said [1].

”Trickle-Down Liberty”

She rejected the argument that trade would free China. “For those who say that economic reform will lead to political reform, I reject that notion of trickle-down liberty. It has not worked,” Pelosi said [1].

By the Numbers

$34 billion: the 1995 U.S. trade deficit with China, per Pelosi [1].
2% vs. 35%: average U.S. and Chinese tariffs on each other’s goods, per Pelosi [1].
141-286: the House vote that kept China’s trade status [2].
$1.2 trillion: the 2024 U.S. goods trade deficit, per Trump’s 2025 order [3].

What Happened Next

The House kept China’s trade status. The resolution “Disapproving most-favored-nation treatment to the products of the People’s Republic of China” failed 141 to 286. Pelosi voted yes [2].

Trump acted on the deficit. On April 2, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14257, declaring “a national emergency arising from conditions reflected in large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits, which have grown by over 40 percent in the past 5 years alone, reaching $1.2 trillion in 2024.” [3]

The order noted that “the United States has among the lowest simple average MFN tariff rates in the world at 3.3 percent, while many of our key trading partners like Brazil (11.2 percent), China (7.5 percent), the European Union (EU) (5 percent), India (17 percent), and Vietnam (9.4 percent) have simple average MFN tariff rates that are significantly higher.” [3]

The White House quoted her. On April 8, 2025, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read Pelosi’s 1996 words from the briefing room podium. “I do just want to point out one thing that the President—everybody in Washington, whether they want to admit it or not knows that this president is right when it comes to tariffs and when it comes to trade,” Leavitt said [4].

“Those are the words of Nancy Pelosi in 1996. While President Trump is finally answering her call 27 years later, Nancy Pelosi can thank President Trump today for the 104 percent retaliatory tariff that will be going into effect on China,” she said [4].

For Trump with Japan’s prime minister on standing up to China’s trade practices, see HYGO News’ page on Feb. 7, 2025. For Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng at the 2020 Republican convention, see the page on Aug. 26, 2020.