[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 35 (Thursday, March 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
   LEGISLATION TO PROMOTE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IN THE SHIPBUILDING 
                                INDUSTRY

  (Mr. ANDREWS of Maine asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ANDREWS of Maine. Mr. Speaker, I am afraid I am the bearer of bad 
news today. Trade negotiations with our foreign shipbuilding 
competitors in Paris have broken up without any resolution whatsoever. 
In a conversation that I had yesterday with the chief negotiator for 
the United States, I learned that these talks may never resume.
  Why should our foreign shipbuilding competitors negotiate in good 
faith at the bargaining table? For the last several years they have 
dumped billions and billions and billions of dollars in unfair 
subsidies to prop up their shipbuilding industry and to wipe out ours. 
We have lost 120,000 good paying jobs in this country as a direct 
result, and now, Mr. Speaker, just when independent analysts are 
telling us we are on the threshold of a giant boom in commercial 
shipbuilding, we are also being told that the United States is about to 
lose an additional 180,000 good paying shipbuilding jobs because of 
this unlevel playing field.
  I am announcing today to my colleagues in the House that I am about 
to introduce legislation, fair but tough legislation, to force our 
partners back in the negotiating table so we can have a level playing 
field for our shipbuilders. It is about time we give those shipbuilders 
in our country a fair chance to compete, so they can have the future 
that they deserve.
  I ask Members to join me in this effort.

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