Andre Carson: “I would like to preface and qualify my remarks by saying that I am not at all opposed to the comments that emanated from…”

“I would like to preface and qualify my remarks by saying that I am not at all opposed to the comments that emanated from the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) and the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) because losing jobs overseas is indeed an acute problem, especially in my district where Indiana alone has lost over 90,000 jobs to foreign corporations. I am going to speak in favor of this legislation in terms of reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. If it passes today, of course it reauthorizes the sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee until September 30, 2006. It requires the bank to continue to report to Congress annually for each of the 4 years on steps taken in sub-Saharan Africa to increase U.S. exports and to consult with the Commerce Department and the Trade Promotion Coordinating Council on the bank's Africa activities. In the year 2000, trade with sub-Saharan Africa was 2 percent of total U.S. exports and 1 percent of total U.S. imports. Three-fourths of total U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa is with just three countries: Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola. When the 106th Congress passed major legislation to improve economic relations between the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa, known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act, I supported that enthusiastically and thought that this country was taking a major step forward in terms of the enhancement of our partnership with Africa and African business.”