Ron Kirk: “Congressman, it will certainly open up more markets, particularly in services Russia is committed to.”

We believe the right to vote is sacred. When more people participate in the democratic process, we all prosper. We stand together in a nonpartisan coalition calling on all elected leaders in Texas to support reforms that make democracy…

I think if there is any area that the administration has distinguished ourselves in, it is at our very strong elevation of trade enforcement to the same level that we have for opening up new markets.

I respectfully ask this committee to move forward quickly with legislation to terminate Jackson-Vanik and empower the President to extend PNTR to Russia.

The most important distinction between this and China, Senator, is that, in the case of Russia, we insisted that they put in place their laws to implement the WTO rules before we would allow them to accede to the WTO.