Political Quotes

“I thank my friend, Mr. LaHood from Illinois, for his expertise in agriculture and these markets. I think it is very important to have his example. I might react by saying the gentleman was talking about the power of working together. I was reflecting that if we were working together to leverage the challenges of China, we are about 15 percent of two-way trade with China. The European Union is about 15 percent or so of trade with China. Japan is another seven. Clearly working together on some of these issues that we have in common would give us more leverage. Let me just outline four key objectives I think of U.S. trade policy with China that I believe would be shared by those two other groups that I mentioned, the European Union and Japan. Ensure China fully complies with its obligations as a member of the WTO, including the beneficial agreements on government procurement, information technology, environmental goods agreement, and a trade and services agreement. These are things, Mr. Speaker, that we have worked on bilaterally and multilaterally since China entered the WTO in 2001, an admission I think now that many people question, was China really ready to join the World Trade Organization in 2001? That is number one. Number two, that we fully protect U.S. intellectual property rights and establish ways and means to cease government-directed cyber theft of U.S. trade secrets and intellectual property both for commercial and national security reasons.…”