Bill Pascrell: “let us not surrender to the China lobby. I rise today to make known my strong support for House Joint Resolution 79…”

“let us not surrender to the China lobby. I rise today to make known my strong support for House Joint Resolution 79, disapproving the extension of most-favored-nation trading status to Communist China. The debate that this body is now engaged in is of the utmost importance for American jobs today and the security of our Nation tomorrow. Let me say that I know my colleagues in this Chamber want nothing more than for our trade deficit with China to narrow, for human rights to improve, for the grave incidents of nuclear and weapons proliferation to cease, and finally, for democracy to take root in China. Let us be honest about this discussion. There is not a single Member in this body who does not want to achieve these laudable goals. But I have come to realize that the annual exercise of renewing China's most-favored-nation status has been a complete failure in its annual exercise of futility. In fact, continuing MFN treatment for China has been based upon a series of broken promises. First, we have heard that engagement is critical for the United States to achieve its economic goals with China. We ought to engage the American worker, that is what we need to engage, in America, to protect our jobs and stop shipping them across the ocean.”