Political Quotes

“American business is not afraid to compete. We are able to compete. We want to compete. They want to get out there and compete. It strikes me as very curious that some of our colleagues here in Congress seem to be a lot more fearful of this competition than our own businesses and, frankly, I think our own workers are. I have never met a worker in one of my factories in Arizona that was not willing to compete. They know they can make good products. All they want to do is have a fair shot at selling that product overseas. That is what these trade negotiations are all about. I just note, point out to the gentlewoman here, when we talk about the U.S. and its role in trade, it is overwhelming. Our trade, our value of our goods and services that we export in 1996 is $849 billion. That is about a sixth of our total GDP, and it is a huge amount. This is just the exports, not the import side of it. Compare that to other countries like Germany at 609 and Japan at 468. We are so far and away the biggest exporter in the world that we still dominate the world.”