Political Quotes

“I am somewhat surprised today that the Members are not really at all interested in moving forward on this bill. Whether we are from a protectionist background or whether we believe in free and fair and open trade, everyone ought to be for this bill because what this bill says, very simply, is we are going to force the other countries in the world to live by an agreement that we all signed. The Congress of the United States signed onto the GATT agreement. We signed onto the World Trade Organization. What we are saying today is we want the rest of the world to live up to the agreements that they signed onto with us. We can talk about bananas. This fight has been going on for a long time. It is an issue that will probably continue. But the World Trade Organization needs to make a decision and needs to follow through on it. But I have found it rather interesting that Members that have come down here to support the interests of Caribbean farmers, small family farmers, let us not forget the other issue in this bill. The other issue here is for cattle producers in America who over the last several years have dealt with the lowest prices they have had. Why do they have low prices? Because we are unable to export our beef to some countries and some nations and areas of the world, including the European Union.”