George Voinovich: “with a sense of regret, I come to the Senate floor to speak in opposition to the legislation before us to implement the…”

“with a sense of regret, I come to the Senate floor to speak in opposition to the legislation before us to implement the free-trade agreement negotiated by the administration with our good friend and ally, Australia. One thing I have made clear throughout my career in Government is the fact that I believe in free trade. As Governor of Ohio, I supported NAFTA and the establishment of the WTO. As a Senator, I supported permanent normal trade relations for China, the Andean Trade Preference Expansion Act, and the so-called ``fast track'' trade negotiating authority. I also supported our FTAs with Jordan, Chile, and Singapore. Until very recently, our economy has been bleeding jobs--23,000 manufacturing jobs lost in my State of Ohio between May of 2003 and May of 2004, which is over half of the total 41,000 jobs lost in all sectors. While I still firmly believe in free trade, I cannot stand idly by while our trade laws are ignored by other countries and go unenforced by our own. I will no longer allow the illegal trade practices of other countries that put good, hard-working Americans in the unemployment lines to be disregarded, because that is exactly what is happening. When it comes to trade, China is the elephant in the room that everyone is afraid to acknowledge because they fear it will rear its ugly head. It seems as if we want to waltz with the Chinese and, for some reason, we are afraid to step on their toes for fear they might get mad.”