Max Baucus: “I highly applaud him for what he is doing. I would like to comment a bit on some of the points that the Senator and that…”

“I highly applaud him for what he is doing. I would like to comment a bit on some of the points that the Senator and that others who are in support of his amendment have made, just to clear the air a little bit so we know what is in the underlying bill and what isn't. The Senator said--and we all agree--that we want to uphold the dignity of law, particularly the dignity of labor, and do all we can to discourage the exploitation of children around the world, or other employees who are in adverse conditions. We all know that. I might say that one of the core objectives in the underlying bill is to promote the ILO core standards in new trade agreements. That has not been mentioned very frequently here. I think it is something that should be stated very clearly. That is, one of the negotiating objectives in the underlying bill is that the United States pursue promotion of the International Labor Organization core standards as one of our negotiating objectives.”