Political Quotes

“the vote on permanent trade status for China is vital to our technology and small business interests in North Carolina, but it is particularly important to North Carolina agriculture, so I am glad this evening to come and join a number of other colleagues and talk about this issue. In 1998, North Carolina ranked 11th among the 50 States in the value of agricultural exports totaling $1.5 billion. These exports supported about 22,800 jobs both on and off the farm in our State. Our State's largest agricultural export, of course, in North Carolina is tobacco. In 1998, North Carolina exported $573 million worth of tobacco leaf. It has been estimated that if flue-cured tobacco farmers could capture just 1 percent of the Chinese market, that is 1 percent, and 1 percent of the manufacturing in China was comprised of American flue-cured tobacco, the stocks in Stabilization would cease to exist and quotas would rise for our farmers. The North Carolina Rural Prosperity Task Force that was chaired by Erskine Bowles estimated that if China would give our farmers fair access to their markets, North Carolina exports of flue-cured tobacco would increase by as much as 10 percent right away. After suffering a 50 percent loss in income due to quota cuts during the past several years, such an increase would be welcome news to many struggling farmers and their families and to tobacco industry workers in our State and other States.”