John B. Breaux: “I take the floor to make a couple of comments about my extreme disappointment over the obvious fact that now this…”

“I take the floor to make a couple of comments about my extreme disappointment over the obvious fact that now this Congress will not be able to take up an agreement that has been worked on and negotiated for over 7 years that has now been completed but that will not be considered by our Congress through the ratification process. The agreement that I speak to is the so-called OECD agreement, which is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has brought together the shipbuilding countries of the world, and after 7 years and two administrations negotiating this agreement and having the other nations of the world that build ships sign on the dotted line saying that this agreement is right for this time, unfortunately, this Congress, and this Senate in particular, will not be in a position to even bring it up for ratification. The bottom line is that this agreement, which has been negotiated for so long, has as its major purpose the ending of shipbuilding subsidies by the other countries of the world.”