Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for yielding and for leading on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I just would remark that wine has informed the meat debate several times here today, and I am glad of that. I rise in support of this legislation to repeal these components of country of origin labeling. I have long held the position that this is a North American market. We don't treat our best trading partners as well as we should, Mr. Speaker, and that includes Mexico, and it especially includes Canada. I often have to go through the list of things we have done that turn out to be something that looks like trade protection at least to them. We have done it with steel. We have done it with softwood timber. We have done it when we have BSE circumstances with beef, which did originate in Canada, spilled over to the United States, and they opened up their foreign trade before we did. This is one of these examples of what happens when you go a little overboard in an effort to try to establish some trade protectionism. This was driven by the people, especially in the Northwest, that thought that they would get an advantage on their cattle industry in that part of the country. Now, we are looking at these sanctions which, by my numbers, likely go to somewhere in the area of $3.15 billion in sanctions between Canada and Mexico. Mr. Speaker, 85 percent of our consumers don't even look at the label to see where that comes from. Consumers still have a choice.…”