Sherrod Brown: “this Congress is built upon a common desire to promote democratic ideals throughout the world. But as we strive to…”

“this Congress is built upon a common desire to promote democratic ideals throughout the world. But as we strive to encourage democracy in developing nations, something is sorely amiss in our China policy. When the CEOs of multinational corporations lobby for increased trade with China, they talk about access to 1.2 billion Chinese consumers. What they do not say is that their real interest is 1.2 billion Chinese workers, workers whom they pay 10 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents, 40 cents an hour. These CEOs will tell us that increasing trade with China will force China to improve, that engagement with China will bring democracy to that Communist dictatorship. But as we engage with developing countries in trade and investment, democratic counties in the developing world are losing ground to more authoritarian countries. Democratic nations such as India are losing out to more totalitarian governments such as China where the people are not free and the workers do as they are told. In the post-Cold War decade, the share of developing country exports to the U.S. for democratic nations fell from 53 percent in 1989 to 34 percent in 1998. Corporate America wants to do business with countries with docile work forces that earn below poverty wages and are not allowed to organize to bargain collectively. In manufacturing goods, developing democracies' share of developing country exports fell 21 percent, from 56 percent to 35 percent.”