Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, my friend from Illinois mentioned enforcement. I was looking in the archives this week when I was thinking about China, and I found an article that I wrote back in 1996 as a private citizen about the Clinton administration's China policy. The paragraph on China and trade reads like this: China, as a world power, for her part, must recognize that bilateral and multilateral treaties are to be enforced. Lack of compliance with international treaty obligations must produce a known and delivered set of sanctions by the world community. China must clearly understand the consequences of noncompliance. I would argue so strongly about the gentleman's point that have we-- when I say ``we,'' I mean the United States, in the past two decades, the European Union as an entity and others--have we done a good job at enforcing those norms and those treaty provisions and those basic tenets of being a WTO member aggressively and collectively against China? I would argue we have a mixed record at best. But I think the gentleman makes a very good point about enforcement. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).”