Tina Smith: “Let me just briefly respond. The Senator from Louisiana is correct in terms of waivers being applied in the past for…”

“Let me just briefly respond. The Senator from Louisiana is correct in terms of waivers being applied in the past for countries. I think he mentioned Colombia and Peru. That is true. And in most cases where such waivers were granted, it was related to narcotics, in the sense that we wanted to try to help them to stop the flow of narcotics into this country. I think if any Senator wanted to look up the background on that, they would find out that is the reason for the waiver. I think in most cases they were voted on, these waivers, in the Senate, and not tucked into a foreign operations bill. Let me also say I am all for Vietnam coming around to the rule of law. I hope it happens before the end of my speech. But is it happening? If they supported the rule of law they would have free elections. The last time I looked I do not think there are free elections in Vietnam. If they supported the rule of law they would not be imprisoning people throughout their country without charging them with anything. So, to say we are going to put $1.5 million of taxpayers' money into this trade council to get into Vietnam to encourage them to live by the rule of law, we could make the same argument with Cuba. How about North Korea or Libya? Why do we not pump a few million dollars in there and see if we can get them to abide by the rule of law?”