Tom Lantos: “To echo the words of the gentleman from Indiana who preceded me in the well, this is a good step but it is not an…”

“To echo the words of the gentleman from Indiana who preceded me in the well, this is a good step but it is not an adequate step. I would differ only in that he said we need more laws. We do not need more laws. We need to enforce the existing laws. I was one who voted against Permanent Most Favored Nation status for China because I thought the only leverage we had over them to stop them from this piracy was the annual renewal of that trade status. The argument of the prevailing side was, well, now they will be in the WTO and they will have to follow the rules; and in fact, that has been pursued successfully once. One time the administration has filed one complaint against the largest pirate of U.S. copyright patents and materials in the world, China, which was on a tax benefit extended to semiconductors; and, in fact, that worked. China backed off, although they are going to phase out this subsidy. I think they should have them immediately end it, but in any case that step did yield some results.”