Frank Pallone: “on the eve of last year's meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, I was joined by 11 of my colleagues in…”

“on the eve of last year's meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, I was joined by 11 of my colleagues in this House on a bipartisan basis in calling on U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to help move the accession of the Republic of Armenia to the WTO. Recently the Trade Representative's office provided me with an update on the administration's negotiations with Armenia for its accession to the WTO. In his letter, Trade Representative official Richard W. Fisher indicates that the United States strongly supports Armenia's WTO membership and its integration into the world economy. Quoting from Mr. Fisher's letter, ``Armenia has made impressive progress on economic reform and transition to a market economy under very difficult economic circumstances. We believe that Armenia's implementation of WTO provisions will facilitate further progress towards increased investment and economic growth and that its acceptance of WTO market access commitments will foster Armenia's further integration into the global trading system.''”