[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 13 (Wednesday, February 9, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WE MUST REPEAL PNTR WITH CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I am announcing today that along with 61 
cosponsors, 45 Democrats and 16 Republicans, I am introducing 
legislation that will repeal Permanent Normal Trade Relations, PNTR, 
with China.
  Anyone who takes an objective look at our trade policy with China 
must conclude that it is an absolute failure and needs to be 
fundamentally overhauled. There really can be no other conclusion.
  Today, as part of our overall record-breaking $600 billion trade 
deficit, we have an estimated $160 billion trade deficit with China. 
Incredibly, this trade deficit with China has increased by 29 percent 
over the last year alone and almost 50 percent since the passage of 
PNTR in 2000.
  Very few experts in this area doubt that the trade deficit with China 
will continue to escalate in the years ahead. In industry after 
industry, corporate America is shifting our manufacturing plants, our 
good-paying jobs to China where desperate people are forced to work for 
wages as low as 20 cents an hour. Anyone who went Christmas shopping 
this year knows that more and more products on the shelves are made in 
China: toys, bicycles, computers, televisions, shoes and sneakers, all 
kind of clothing and hats, telephone, furniture, auto parts and even 
artificial Christmas decorations. Ironically, the little American flags 
that Members of Congress wave around are often made in China.
  In the last 4 years, the United States has lost 2.7 million 
manufacturing jobs, over 16 percent, of our entire manufacturing 
sector. In my own small State of Vermont, we have lost 20 percent of 
our manufacturing jobs during that period. PNTR with China and our 
disastrous trade policies in general are one of the key reasons for 
that, but we should be very aware that PNTR with China is not only 
leading to the destruction of traditional manufacturing and blue collar 
jobs. It is leading to the loss of millions of high-tech, information 
technology jobs as well. These are the jobs that we were told would be 
there for our kids and would secure them with a place in the middle 
class.
  The question that the American people have to ask is why it is that 
corporate America, with the active support of the President of the 
United States and the congressional leadership, is selling out the 
American people and making China the economic superpower of the 21st 
century. Not only is China rapidly becoming the manufacturing center of 
the world; it is quickly becoming the information technology hub as 
well.
  Andy Grove, the founder of Intel, predicted last year that the United 
States will lose the bulk of its information technology jobs to China 
and India over the next decade. John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco, was 
typical of many high-tech leaders when he said, ``China will become the 
IT center of the world. What we're,'' at Cisco, ``trying to do is 
outline an entire strategy of becoming a Chinese company.''
  At a time when poverty in America is increasing, the gap between the 
rich and the poor is growing wider and most of the new jobs projected 
for the future are low wage with minimal benefits, the great economic 
struggle of our time is whether the middle class of America can be 
saved. Will we be a country in which ordinary workers have bright 
futures with good-paying jobs and decent benefits, or will we continue 
to move in an oligarchic direction in which the rich get richer and 
most everyone else gets poorer? To a significant degree, the answer to 
that question will depend on whether Congress has the courage to make 
fundamental changes in our trade policy, including PNTR with China.
  The word has got to go out loud and clear to companies like Wal-Mart, 
GE, GM, IBM and dozens more, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 
that they cannot keep sending America's future to China. Trade is a 
good thing, but must be based on principles that are fair to American 
workers. The U.S. Congress can no longer allow corporate America to 
sell out the middle class and move our economy abroad.
  It is not acceptable that Jeff Immelt of General Electric, the CEO, 
says, ``When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, 
China, China.''
  It is not acceptable that Thomas Donahue, the CEO of the U.S. Chamber 
of Commerce ``urges'' American companies to send jobs overseas.
  It is not acceptable that Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in America, 
tells us that Communist authoritarian China has created ``a brand new 
form of capitalism, and as a consumer it's the best thing that ever 
happened.''
  We need to repeal PNTR to China.

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