Albert Russell Wynn: “I rise in opposition to renewal of most-favored-nation status for the People's Republic of China. This is, basically, a…”

“I rise in opposition to renewal of most-favored-nation status for the People's Republic of China. This is, basically, a question of fairness and of common sense. The fact of the matter is that we have a tremendous trade deficit with China. China does not allow U.S. products in. China imposes tremendously high and unfair tariffs. Mr. Speaker, this is simply a question of common sense. Our choice is not either isolate or engage. We also have the choice to negotiate, to say to China, ``We want to trade but on fair terms. You should not have such a trade imbalance. You should not block our products. You should not pirate our intellectual property. You should not trade arms to our enemies.'' These are things that we can negotiate while maintaining a relationship. People say, well, MFN will give us a better situation in all these areas. The fact of the matter is, we granted MFN last year and the situation got worse. In fact, our trade deficit this year is 41 percent worse than it was last year. So there is no empirical evidence that MFN has yielded results. We need trade, but we need fair trade and a measure of common sense.”