Charles W. Stenholm: “I want to use these 5 minutes for purposes of commending the administration's announcement of yesterday in which they…”

“I want to use these 5 minutes for purposes of commending the administration's announcement of yesterday in which they are exempting food and medicine from unilateral trade sanctions. This has a possible immediate and positive impact on agriculture exports of wheat, rice and corn. The United States agricultural producers, and we will hear a little bit more about that in the next hour, have faced a lot of problems with trade barriers imposed by other countries; but United States sanctions, when we and some who believe that our own policies can be put forward by denying shipment of food and medicine to countries, that too becomes a sanction or a trade barrier. We have clearly proven, I think, over the last several years that sanctions do not work; they hurt producers, and they hurt those that we do not intend to hurt. I think that we can find much more effective ways to implement foreign policy. Therefore, the new policy, which is part of the administration's long-term review of sanctions, which is intended to ensure effectiveness of economic sanctions, is designed to minimize the cost to United States' producers of anything and maintain the reputation of the United States as a reliable supplier, something that often gets overlooked by some who believe that these actions, as they result in what is perceived to be in the best interests of the United States, often do not accomplish that which was intended.”