[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6823-6824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            TRADE AGREEMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith of Washington) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, trade has become an issue that 
is very divisive in this country, and I rise today as a Democrat and a 
member of the New Democratic Coalition to urge this body to remember 
the importance of expanding access to overseas market, the importance 
of trade to the growth of this Nation.
  I do that mindful of some of the protests that have been out there 
about our global trade policy and even somewhat in support of some of 
the complaints that people have said about trade policy.

[[Page 6824]]

  I think it is absolutely correct to look around the world and say 
what can we do to help improve human rights, to help improve labor 
standards, to help make sure that the entire globe protects the 
environment. And I think these issues need to be brought up more often 
in international discussions, not just involving trade, but in all 
discussions with other countries.
  Mr. Speaker, what can we do to help improve those things? I rise 
today just to remind people that even though those issues are 
important, we cannot forget the importance of open markets. It starts 
with the simple fact that 96 percent of the people in the world live 
someplace other than the United States of America, while at the same 
time, here in the U.S., we manage to account for 20 percent of the 
world's consumption.
  If we are going to grow economically, if we are going to create more 
jobs, those statistics make it abundantly clear that we are going to 
have to get access to some of those other 96 percent of the people in 
the world.
  We need to get access to their markets. We need to reduce barriers, 
open access to trade to help grow the economy. And I do not think 
people understand completely the benefits that trade have brought and 
the role they have played in the strong economy that we now enjoy.
  I just think that while we are working to improve labor conditions, 
working to improve human rights and environment, we can also open up 
other markets to our trade. And the best example of this, and I support 
the comments of the gentleman from California (Mr. Dooley), my 
colleague who came before me, is the China PNTR trade agreement.
  All of the concerns we have heard about trade in previous agreements, 
a lot of them focus on the fact that it is a one-sided trade agreement. 
We open our markets, but other countries do not open theirs. This is 
actually the first trade agreement that goes the other way. China opens 
their markets by reducing their barriers across the board in a wide 
variety of goods and services that will increase our access to the 
single largest market in the world, 1.3 billion people.
  This is a great trade agreement that actually will help us here in 
the U.S., and we need to recognize it for that. We also need to 
recognize how engagement helps move us forward.
  Mr. Speaker, turning down PNTR for China will not do one thing to 
improve human rights, labor conditions or environmental standards in 
China. In fact, if you listen to the human rights activists over there, 
and if you listened to people over in that corner of the world, 
isolating China will send them in exactly the opposite direction.
  Taiwan, in particular, we have heard a lot about how we cannot 
support this agreement, because of how bad China has treated Taiwan; 
and I agree that there have been many bad actions by China towards 
Taiwan. The Taiwanese, the recently elected president, an outspoken 
advocate for independence for Taiwan, someone who has run against China 
many, many times strongly supports the U.S. favoring PNTR for China, 
because he understands that engagement is the policy that will best 
protect him from Chinese aggression if they choose to go that route.
  He wants China to be connected to the rest of the world so that they 
cannot afford to act in a way that forces the rest of the world to back 
away from them. So you can have a good trade agreement and also improve 
human rights, labor conditions, and the environment; but this argument 
goes beyond the specifics of the China Trade Agreement, even though I 
think it will be a watershed moment in this country to see whether or 
not we are going to go forward and embrace engagement and embrace 
overseas markets or drift back into a dangerous isolation that could 
push us into a bipolar world.
  It is a basic philosophy of whether or not opening markets is open 
and beneficial. I think there is a lot of statistics out there that 
show that access to trade helps improve the economy across the board. 
This is not an isolated few who benefit from it. When we have an 
economy with 4 percent unemployment, 2 percent inflation, and growth as 
high as 6 or 7 percent, that benefits everybody in this country.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot lose sight of the importance of opening 
overseas markets to our goods. And it goes beyond economics. It is also 
a matter of national security. We should be concerned about the rest of 
the world, whether or not countries like Vietnam, Sub-Saharan Africa, 
other countries in the Third World grow and prosper. If they do not 
have access to our markets, their people will never be able to rise out 
of poverty. They will never be able to generate the type of economy 
that they need in order to have any level of prosperity whatsoever.
  This is important for two reasons. One, if we can grow a vibrant 
middle class in places like Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond, they are in 
a position to buy our stuff and help our economy grow as well. If they 
are in poverty, we cannot get access to those markets because there is 
no one to buy.
  Beyond economics, it is also important to keep the peace. If 
countries are impoverished, that is what leads to revolution and war. 
We have to help them grow up so that we can keep peace and stability in 
the world. Trade is important. Labor, human rights, environment, 
absolutely important. But let us not forget the importance of opening 
our markets for global stability and for a strong economy in the U.S.

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