Robert Berry: “this evening I want to commend the President, the Speaker of the House, and leaders on both sides of the aisle for their…”

“this evening I want to commend the President, the Speaker of the House, and leaders on both sides of the aisle for their work on China permanent normal trade relations. I commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest) of the Committee on Agriculture and the ranking member the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) for their work on opening markets with China and many other countries. I want to commend Ambassador Barshefsky, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Secretary of Commerce Bill Daley for their work in opening markets to American agriculture and other commodities. If Congress does not pass PNTR for China, it will be the worst economic policy decision since the Smoot-Hawley act of 1930 that the Congress has made. Smoot-Hawley was based on the idea that our economy can succeed while all other economies of the world fail. This is simply not the case. Failure to pass PNTR will be a step toward the isolation of Smoot-Hawley and a step away from the global business practices which have fueled our economic growth. PNTR is a good deal for business, workers, farmers, consumers and all Americans. It is an especially good deal for American agriculture. We produce more food than we can consume. With 1.3 billion people, 20 percent of the world's population, China must import food to feed its people. Based on this fact, the agriculture relationship is a win-win situation for both countries.”