[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            WE NEED PNTR NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Meeks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MEEKS. Russia, with some of the world's most sophisticated 
consumers and a rapidly growing market, will join the World Trade 
Organization by summer's end. After 18 years of negotiating with the 
United States and the World Trade Organization, after improving their 
trade laws and reducing tariffs, yes, very shortly Russia will be a 
member of the World Trade Organization.
  For the United States, this could mean improved market access for our 
exports of goods and services. It could mean protections if Russia 
violates international rules. It could mean a trade boost, an 
additional 50,000 jobs or more right here in the United States of 
America, and all of this, if the United States and this Congress lifts 
the Cold War relic, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, and authorizes 
permanent normal trade relations. We've waived Jackson-Vanik for over 
20 years. We now need PNTR, and we need to do it now.
  Our competitors will have access to that market. We will then fall 
behind them.
  We can compete with anybody in the world. This is the greatest 
country in the world. Let's not lock ourselves out of the market in 
Russia. Let's not put ourselves behind our competitors. Here's an 
opportunity for us to come together.
  You heard earlier this morning my friend and colleague, David Dreier, 
bringing folks together, talking about how we can do this together with 
the President of the United States, who has an export initiative, to 
create more jobs.
  Here we can demonstrate to the American people that we're concerned 
about creating jobs, and that we're going to make sure that we take 
advantage of that opportunity by bringing PNTR for Russia immediately, 
getting involved, and trading with them to create jobs right here in 
the good old United States of America.

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