Sam Gibbons: “I want to just comment a little on the term ``most favored nation.'' First of all, I heartily endorse what the gentleman…”

“I want to just comment a little on the term ``most favored nation.'' First of all, I heartily endorse what the gentleman from Illinois has said. We need to grant most-favored-nation treatment to Cambodia. Now, I hate to explain this to my colleagues, but most favored nation does not mean that much. It just means normal trading status for an emerging country. I mention this because every now and then somebody gets on the floor and says, oh, for that horrible country, and then they will name the country, you are giving them most-favored trading status, which sounds like you are really giving them something. Well, we are not really giving them anything. We are giving ourselves access to their markets and them to our markets on the same basis that we give all the other nations on earth, with very few minor exceptions. So I hope nobody will take umbrage by the fact that we are granting most-favored-nation treatment to little Cambodia. Cambodia has had a tortured career in the last few years. They have had terrible revolutions in their country and awful bloodshed, but they have signaled that they want to go right and want to do the right thing. It is time that we welcome them into the family of trading nations.”