Johnny Isakson

I've traveled extensively in West Africa and I've seen firsthand exactly--they're almost bereft of health care facilities, of anything close to what we would consider to be reasonable.

Emory University and the CDC did a marvelous job of making those transfers seamless and complete.

As one of Georgia's two Senators, however, I want to add how proud we are of Emory University and Dr. Jim Wagner.

I think they just spelled 'yes' wrong. They spelled it 'N O.'

We are glad the bill passed, we are glad we are having oversight, but just go do it.

We want to make sure certification is possible.

I appreciate you mentioning the MINER Act because we worked on that together, and I think it's a good example of what's not true right now in terms of the labor management conundrums that we have in Washington.

If we are ever going to get to the goal, which is a foundation for free trade agreements with African countries that are compliant, we ought to have some tiered levels of accomplishment or participation

I think former Chairman, now Ranking Member Hatch's point on TPA should be noted to this extent.

From my experience in Africa, getting the African countries to recognize intellectual property protection, worker rights, standards like we do in the United States, pay attention to corruption and have a more stable environment in which to…

I think, every time we look the other way and put off the inevitable--that is, giving the President the authority under TPA that he needs...

Should we not have a tiered way for somebody to come back, like Swaziland, to get back into the AGOA agreement?

I want to brag about Ambassador Froman for a minute.

Well, carried to the extreme, if collusion like that were a common practice, you could have the European Union saying to Korea, you cannot import any automobile named Explorer, or like my hybrid Escape, just by the type of car.

But it might be worthy of us taking steps for a provision like that to be part of our negotiated agreements so it automatically invalidates the free trade agreement we have entered into with somebody if they collude or conspiratorially in…

I really appreciate your comments and your remarks about enforcement mechanisms in KORUS.

Then I heard you say that you thought our embassies ought to do a better job of monitoring the negotiations of the countries where they represent us to try to catch this.

Well, that seems like a dangerous practice if it ever caught fire on any number of different types of products, because it is basically a conspiracy.

If I understood you correctly, you said the E.U. colluded with the South Koreans to restrict the import of certain types of cheeses from the United States into South Korea. Is that correct?

Cheese is my favorite food, so, when you start talking about cheese, you have my attention.

We have to stay vigilant.

I believe in international trade creating jobs in my State, but also creating jobs in South Korea.

Without TPA, the administration continues to negotiate from a weaker position, and Congress's priorities are notably absent.

I hope that it will happen.

I have voted for every free trade agreement that I have had the possibility of voting for since I have been in the Congress of the United States in the last 16 years.