Bob Dole: “just over 1 month ago, in consecutive special sessions, both Houses of Congress passed a landmark bill implementing the…”

“just over 1 month ago, in consecutive special sessions, both Houses of Congress passed a landmark bill implementing the new GATT Agreement. The Agreement establishes a new international body, the World Trade Organization, to oversee with unprecedented authority the growth and development of international trade into the 21st century. I heard from Americans across the country in the days and weeks leading up to the vote. They wanted to know what effect the WTO would have on U.S. sovereignty. People from all over Kansas and just about everywhere else were deeply concerned that this entirely new international organization would rob us of our freedom. I set out to identify those things in this new organization that had the greatest potential to go awry, that might end up harming instead of helping U.S. interests in global trade. I believe the legislation I am introducing today goes a long way toward ensuring that America retains full control of her destiny, that no international organization staffed by unelected bureaucrats will dictate what we do here at home. I hope my colleagues understand, and I want the American people to understand, that the World Trade Organization is an experiment. It is an experiment that Congress has endorsed. But we have not done so unconditionally. Far from it. We have not signed away American sovereignty.”