Timothy Roemer: “Mr. Speaker, as a new Democrat, I rise in strong support of fair trade, not unfettered free trade, and I also rise in…”

“Mr. Speaker, as a new Democrat, I rise in strong support of fair trade, not unfettered free trade, and I also rise in support of the rule, but against the underlying bill. As a fair trader, as a new Democrat who believes that the trade deficit that we seem to build month by month by month is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, but also as a Member of Congress who believes that we need to pry open and penetrate new markets overseas so that we can export products, not jobs, we need a working, viable, reformed, modernized WTO. Now, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), my good friend, said we need dramatic change in the WTO. I agree. I agree with that statement. I think where we differ is that I believe we need dramatic and fundamental change in the WTO to emphasize human rights, to emphasize labor law, to enforce and implement the trade laws that we in the United States have on the books to protect our jobs in the Midwest and throughout the country, but we do not want to blow up the WTO, and that is what this vote is about. We do not want to mow it down, we want to modernize it. We want to improve it, not remove it.”