Political Quotes

“President Bush arrived in Japan today and will meet tomorrow with Prime Minister Koizumi. Later this week, he will travel to China to meet with their President as well. It is time that we insist that the President use this opportunity, this important opportunity, to demand changes, changes in our economic relationship with China and with Japan. The President needs to say, as he is there with those leaders, that we will no longer accept their illegal trade practices that are costing American jobs, and we demand that changes be made; we no longer accept the fact that China and Japan manipulate their currency, which means their products are artificially lower than ours when they sell them into this country; we no longer accept that they are stealing our patents and our intellectual property. Last week, I was pleased to author a letter to the President with that very message on behalf of myself and 14 other Senators, urging him to make 2 major changes in our relationship with these important nations: No. 1, we need to end the rampant counterfeiting of American products that is occurring in China. It is estimated that 7 percent of world trade is in counterfeit goods, that the counterfeit market is worth $350 billion. It is estimated that in the auto industry alone, we lose over $12 billion annually to counterfeit auto parts, parts that are unsafe as well as costing us jobs.…”