Political Quotes

“I have long championed the concept that trade done right requires strong environmental protections as well as enforcement of those commitments. Many of our most serious environmental challenges, from climate change to deforestation to protecting the oceans from being strip-mined with industrial fishing practices, can only succeed in the context of enforceable international agreements. Democrats reached an accord with the Bush administration through the May 10 Agreement, which is one tool. The 2008 Lacey Act amendments are another. There are now a host of trade-related tools to fight some of the most egregious environmental challenges. In the Peru Free Trade Agreement, we were able to include an entire Forest Annex that requires Peru to sustainably manage its forest resources and protect their forests, under penalty of law. The impact of those tools, however, is dependent on our willingness to use things like the Peru Free Trade Agreement. Recent events present a chance to put those tools to work to fight against illegal logging in Peru, a country where 60 percent of its land is in the Amazon rainforest, and estimates on the rate of illegal logging in that area are as high as 80 percent. Last week, over 70 shipping containers of what is suspected to be illegally harvested timber from Peru was stopped at the Port of Houston.…”