Chris Smith: “a few weeks ago the U.S. sent a representative to Vietnam to conduct a human rights dialog with the government there. At…”

“a few weeks ago the U.S. sent a representative to Vietnam to conduct a human rights dialog with the government there. At the conclusion of the dialogue the Vietnamese government issued a statement essentially denying that the U.S. had any right whatsoever to concern itself with human rights outside of its borders. However, less than 2 weeks later, with the obligatory dialogue out of the way, the U.S. sent another representative to Vietnam, and this time we signed an agreement in principle to give MFN, or normal trading status to Vietnam, sending a clear message to the Hanoi dictatorship that they can safely ignore everything else we say about human rights and still get what they want from our government. Mr. Speaker, let us be very clear on one thing. There is no freedom of immigration from Vietnam. If there were, there would be no need for this waiver. The administration could simply certify that Vietnam complies with the Jackson-Vanik freedom of immigration requirement. Instead, by waiving the requirement, the administration has conceded that there is no such freedom. Mr. Speaker, the only significant human rights concession the Vietnamese Government has made in order to get the waiver was to finally begin letting us interview people under the rover program.”