[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 156 (Thursday, December 6, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7653-S7654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RUSSIA AND MOLDOVA PNTR
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, in this day and age, there is simply no
denying that our economy is very much a part of a global economy and
affected by it. Gone are the days when businesses relied solely on
growing their customer base for domestic markets. Today, 95 percent of
the world's consumers live outside the United States, and we are
producing for those consumers as well as domestic ones.
One action that would help our economy improve at a faster rate would
be to increase trade opportunities overseas for American businesses and
farmers. Increased trade helps create jobs, increase incomes, and
expand opportunities for innovation.
As we have seen over the course of history and also repeating what
President John F. Kennedy often spoke about, free and fair trade helps
all boats rise;
That is to say, countries willing to lower their trade barriers and
allow fair and competitive trade will see growth in their economies.
However, history also shows even among nations with good relations,
trade disputes still arise. That is why we need a forum to settle
international disputes such as the World Trade Organization does. The
WTO allows American businesses a place to take complaints against
unfair trade barriers and have a judicial result.
For 19 years Russia has worked toward entry into the World Trade
Organization. Now they are in the World Trade Organization. I support
Russia being in the World Trade Organization. As the world's eleventh
largest economy with over 140 million citizens, it is obviously an
important market for U.S. businesses and farmers looking to expand
their overseas markets.
Some of Iowa's heavy equipment manufacturers are already exporting
millions of dollars of equipment to Russia.
Agricultural equipment manufactured in facilities all around Iowa is
being used by Russian farmers as they look to increase their
agricultural efficiency and productivity.
The World Trade Organization accession process afforded us an
opportunity to address Russian tariffs against our products. In the
accession agreement, Russia has agreed to lower its tariffs for these
construction and agricultural equipment products. That obviously means
increased exports and an increase in good American jobs.
By far the largest percentage of Iowa exports to Russia consists of
grains, meats, and other agricultural products being produced by Iowa's
farmers. Russia's accession into the WTO has been an important issue
for our pork producers, for our cattlemen, and for our grain farmers.
Iowa's farmers are some of the best in the world. They are truly
helping to feed the world. Expanding opportunities in overseas markets
is vital to the future of American agriculture. Russia has been and I
think will continue to be an important market for our farmers. But it
does not come without its challenges.
Russia has repeatedly raised barriers to the U.S. imports based upon
restrictions not supported by sound science. So now I am going to tell
you about some problems I have with Russia, even though I want Russia
to be in the WTO and I want this legislation to pass so it can be fully
implemented.
I will share some things we have problems with regarding Russia. Let
us take pork exports as an example. In 2008, U.S. pork sales to Russia
totaled over 200,000 metric tons. Since that time exports have fallen
nearly 60 percent due to Russia's reduced import quota and questionable
sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions. I am pleased our trade
negotiators were able to negotiate a satisfactory tariff rate quota for
our pork. But this administration under President Obama has fallen
short in its obligations to stand with U.S. farmers on these sanitary
and phytosanitary standards; in other words, standing up for using
sound science instead of some illegitimate reason for keeping our
products out of Russia.
I have communicated time and again what I expected of this
administration because they have to negotiate for us. In June 2011, I
led a bipartisan letter with Senator Nelson of Nebraska and 26 other
Senators to Ambassador Kirk requesting his negotiators follow the steps
we have taken during consideration of past WTO accessions. I referred
to China and Vietnam as examples for this administration to follow.
When these countries joined the WTO, we used these opportunities to
obtain firm sanitary-phytosanitary commitments from those countries
that went beyond the WTO sanitary-phytosanitary agreement. In
particular, we obtained further commitments in areas of meat inspection
equivalence.
In addition, in June of this year, I sent another bipartisan letter
with Senator Nelson of Nebraska and 32 other Senate colleagues to
President Obama again laying out our request that he stand for American
farmers and demand more of the Russian Government on sanitary-
phytosanitary issues which would very much benefit our agriculture
products going into Russia.
As we know, this administration did not use the accession process to
fully address these crucial issues so they have to be addressed outside
of this process where we do not quite have the leverage we would
otherwise have. That is why I requested language that is in this
legislation to require our trade negotiators to keep working with these
unfair trade barriers and report to Congress on their progress. Our
farmers are some of the very best in the world. We cannot allow their
products to be discriminated against based upon arbitrary nonscientific
and unjustifiable reasons.
In addition to the concerns I repeatedly raised on sanitary-
phytosanitary issues, there are other issues at stake with Russia. It
is a shame that we are handling this bill in a lameduck session when
time is so limited. This bill should have been debated at a time
[[Page S7654]]
when the Senate could more fully evaluate the current course of our
relationship with Russia.
Russia continues to cause challenges in regard to Syria, Iran, and
other regions of the world where the United States and our allies are
trying to do what is right in the name of human dignity and also in the
name of national security. I am concerned with Russia's own human
rights issues. That is why I am very glad the Magnitsky provisions are
in this bill.
As ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I remain
troubled by the lack of progress Russia has made on protecting
intellectual property rights. Furthermore, Russian officials need to
step up their efforts in combating cyber crimes. There continues to be
a large number of cyber attacks that originate from within Russia's
borders.
All that being said, I realize having Russia in the WTO is a very
positive step. One of the goals of international trade is to build upon
relationships between nations. Having Russia in the WTO fold will
hopefully benefit our nations as we work together on so many issues
that concern us, plus, as I have stated before, having the WTO forum
available to help our businesses and farmers when disputes arise is
important.
I have said I want Russia in the WTO. I have said there are good
opportunities for us there. I just spoke as to why I think there are
problems with Russia that need to be worked out. President Putin is not
going to pay any attention to what I say, but I want him to know these
are issues of the re-Sovietization of the country and I do not like it.
I favor this bill; I favor working with Russia. But they are becoming
more of a problem. I look forward to hearing from our trade negotiators
in the not too distant future on their progress in getting Russia to
remove the unjustifiable barriers to our agricultural products.
Furthermore, as President Obama looks toward other trade initiatives
in the future, I hope this accession process will be a lesson. This
process could have been better, in other words, using the leverage the
United States has during these accession negotiations to get a lot of
these disputes settled as we did with China and Vietnam that we have
not fully done with Russia.
The President has called on Congress to pass this legislation for
some time. But his lack of consultation with Congress and disregard for
the concerns raised by this Senator and other Members has only served
to delay this whole process. We cannot keep approaching trade issues in
this fashion. This administration needs to have real and substantive
consultation with Congress.
Furthermore, when there are opportunities to stand for American
businesses and farmers against unfair trade barriers such as the
sanitary and phytosanitary issues in Russia, the President needs to
seize that opportunity the same way it was seized in the case of
Vietnam and in the case of China's accession.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown of Ohio). The Senator from Florida
is recognized.
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to
speak as in morning business
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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