Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would like to speak in opposition to these three pending free-trade agreements. The bills look like they are about this size. These are the actual implementing of the three free-trade agreements. But one of the bills, and not the largest one--the one, in fact, of the three countries we are probably today passing trade agreements with, Colombia, South Korea, and Panama--the smallest by far in terms of its economy is Panama, and this is the trade agreement with Panama. I remember all these conservative talk radio people saying: Have you read the bill? Have you read the bill? Have you read the bill? Every time it is a bill they don't agree with, they ask: Have you read the bill? This isn't just to eliminate the tariffs we have with the Republic of Panama. If these agreements were about eliminating tariffs with labor standards--and I know the Presiding Officer from Oregon shares that view about labor standards. If these agreements were about eliminating tariffs and labor standards, they would be about this big. They wouldn't be anything like this. But these are chock-full of special interest deals. It is what this body always does: the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico; the PNTR with China, a different kind of situation but leading to even more problems; the Central American Free Trade Agreement with six countries in Central America and the Dominican Republic.…”