Political Quotes

“Now let me move to the third issue. The notion of, as my friend from North Carolina stated, that there is an artificial date of April 29 made up by the administration to put undue pressure on the Senate to act. Let me point out for the Senate that there is nothing artificial about that date. It is real. What does that mean? It means that our failure to ratify before the 29th will have consequences. First, the chemical weapons treaty mandates trade restrictions that could have a deleterious impact upon the American chemical industry. If the United States has not ratified, as long as they have not ratified, American companies will have to supply end user certificates to purchase certain classes of chemicals from the CWC signatories. After 3 years, they will be subject to trade sanctions that will harm American exports and jobs. I know that my friend says a lot of chemical companies do not like this. I come from a State that has a little bit of an interest in chemicals, the single most significant State in America that deals with chemicals. A little company called Du Pont; a little company called Hercules; a little company called ICI Americas; a little company called Du Pont Merck--little pharmaceutical outfits who are among the giants in the world. They are not what you call liberal Democratic establishments. They are ardently--I can testify--they are ardently in favor of this treaty.”