Sam Gibbons: “Mr. Speaker, again, the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Crane] has adequately explained this legislation. I will be brief.…”

“Mr. Speaker, again, the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Crane] has adequately explained this legislation. I will be brief. The trade subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means first visited Bulgaria as an official delegation in 1985. We were impressed then that Bulgaria was moving faster than most of the countries in the Eastern Bloc away from a centrally planned economy and toward a free and open economy. The evidence was clear then that that was their ultimate goal. Bulgaria, like most Eastern European countries, has had a tortured history, occupied by many different foreign powers over a long period of time, most recently occupied by the Germans during World War II and, prior to World War I, by the Turkish Government, the Ottoman Empire, for 500 or 600 years. They were abused greatly during their occupation, suffered a great deal, and have come out of it a wiser, but sadder nation. Mr. Speaker, we should grant to this country most-favored-nation treatment; in other words, ordinary trade treatment for a civilized country. It will help us. It will help them.”