Thomas H. Andrews: “I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news today. Trade negotiations with our foreign shipbuilding competitors in Paris…”

“I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news today. Trade negotiations with our foreign shipbuilding competitors in Paris have broken up without any resolution whatsoever. In a conversation that I had yesterday with the chief negotiator for the United States, I learned that these talks may never resume. Why should our foreign shipbuilding competitors negotiate in good faith at the bargaining table? For the last several years they have dumped billions and billions and billions of dollars in unfair subsidies to prop up their shipbuilding industry and to wipe out ours. We have lost 120,000 good paying jobs in this country as a direct result, and now, Mr. Speaker, just when independent analysts are telling us we are on the threshold of a giant boom in commercial shipbuilding, we are also being told that the United States is about to lose an additional 180,000 good paying shipbuilding jobs because of this unlevel playing field. I am announcing today to my colleagues in the House that I am about to introduce legislation, fair but tough legislation, to force our partners back in the negotiating table so we can have a level playing field for our shipbuilders. It is about time we give those shipbuilders in our country a fair chance to compete, so they can have the future that they deserve. I ask Members to join me in this effort.”