[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS MUST BE HONEST, FAIR, AND RECIPROCAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, on his recent trip to Asia, President 
Trump reminded us and our international trading partners that our 
commercial agreements must be honest, fair, and reciprocal. With this 
admonition, he called on our Asian friends to build automobile plants 
that would employ American workers. Three cheers for him for doing 
that.
  The United States already has experienced the benefits and the 
liabilities of foreign-controlled multinational automobile companies 
manufacturing in our country. These companies have provided good jobs 
for America's working people, but having these foreign companies here 
hasn't always worked.
  A few years ago, we discovered that one of the world's preeminent car 
manufacturers, Volkswagen Group of America, had engaged in an illegal 
and clandestine strategy to circumvent U.S. emissions laws.
  Volkswagen has a longstanding relationship with the American people. 
Like so many young people in my generation, my first car was a 
Volkswagen Beetle, so Volkswagen enjoyed an enormous goodwill in our 
country. Despite that, Volkswagen Group of America intentionally did us 
wrong. Volkswagen intentionally violated our emissions regulations and, 
by many accounts, they even engineered their systems to falsely 
indicate that they were complying with the emissions standards.
  This was nothing more than pure arrogance and a hostile intent and an 
egregious violation of our best legislative efforts to regulate our way 
to clean air. Unfortunately, this issue with Volkswagen has not been 
totally dealt with and put behind us.
  The deal with the German Government that got them off the hook 
remains cloaked in mystery and left many questions unanswered. We do 
not know yet, for example, whether Volkswagen will compensate Americans 
in a full and just manner. Those uncompensated Americans may include 
the owners of the bogusly engineered cars, as well as auto importers, 
as well as, perhaps, service stations who officially were authorized to 
repair Volkswagens.
  Mr. Speaker, the VW deal between the Obama administration and the 
Merkel government needs to be revisited with a full airing of the 
details. We need to know if Volkswagen has complied fully and if the 
settlement was demonstrably fair to Americans who relied on their good 
faith.
  Wolfgang Porsche, the family who owns 52 percent of Volkswagen, he 
was the chairman during this time of the emissions scandal; as well as 
Matthias Mueller, the CEO of Volkswagen Group, they need to be put on 
the record about what the details of this subterfuge of American law 
was all about.
  We need to send a message also. By putting them on the record, we 
need to send a message to all the multinational corporation executives 
who, when they do business in the United States of America, have to 
play by our rules.
  I applaud the President for trying to encourage people to invest in 
building factories here, but that means all of us must make sure that 
that works out for the best for the American people.

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