Joe Biden: “The sense-of-the-Senate resolution proposed by Senator Grassley reinforces a commitment that I support, which is to…”

“The sense-of-the-Senate resolution proposed by Senator Grassley reinforces a commitment that I support, which is to extend all efforts to expand our relationship with Russia. Russia has taken very significant steps toward working with NATO, cooperating with us against terrorism in central Asia and the north Caucasus, providing a stable world oil market, and opening up its domestic markets. But we have to keep in mind that while Russia, under President Putin, is moving toward greater acceptance of the rule of law, free trade, and a market economy, it is not there yet. It hopes to join the World Trade Organization, it is seeking foreign investment, and it is working to revise its legal and business structures toward those ends. But it still falls by the wayside on significant points. Most visibly, on March 1 of this year, Russia imposed an unexpected and arbitrary embargo on imports of U.S. chicken parts, causing serious grief and economic loss to an industry. Now, chickens and chicken parts are a multibillion-dollar industry, bigger than most of the industries in most of your States. And it is a big deal in my State.”