Political Quotes

“the Government of France has recently perpetuated an outrage on fishermen in this country and shown a contempt for the civilized rules of economic discourse between nations. Due to political pressures within France, the French Government has effectively banned exports of fish from the United States or elsewhere to France. The French have previously been one of the most difficult nations, when it comes to trying to reach multinational agreements on intellectual property, on trying to renegotiate an agreement they made at Blair House. Now they are simply unilaterally abrogating responsibilities and obligations they have under international law. American fishermen, already hurt by conservation measures which have been imposed upon them, find themselves at risk in the tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars as fish spoil because the French are illegitimately manipulating their inspection procedures to become an inappropriately protectionist nation. On behalf of myself, my colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Studds], who chairs the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, and the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Torkildsen], I am today introducing a resolution in which we, among other things, call on the United States Trade Representative and, through him, the President, to immediately impose on the French retaliatory measures to counter the absolutely unjustified harm they are imposing for political reasons in France on fishermen in this country.”