Sherrod Brown: “in 3 weeks the Republican leadership will ask this body to vote for permanent most favored nation status trading…”

“in 3 weeks the Republican leadership will ask this body to vote for permanent most favored nation status trading privileges for the People's Republic of China. They tell us engagement with China, that more trade with China, that giving trade advantages to China, will make everything better. It all started back about a dozen years ago with Ronald Reagan, then President George Bush and President Bill Clinton, telling us that things would get better with China. Eleven years ago the United States had a $100 million trade deficit, with an ``M,'' with Communist China, the People's Republic of China. Today that trade deficit has grown to $70 billion, that is billion with a ``B,'' from $100 million in 11 years to $70 billion trade deficit with China. We sell only $15 billion worth of goods to China every year. We buy $85 billion worth of goods from China. We sell more to Singapore, we sell more to Taiwan, we sell more to Belgium, than we do to China, because China's markets are closed to American products by and large. This process of engagement and giving them most favored nation status and giving China trade privileges simply has not worked.”