Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I am adamantly opposed to this amendment. If implemented, it would cause the agreement to disintegrate, leaving us with nothing but many wasted years. Make no mistake: the amendment violates the agreement in a fatal way. We have received letters from a number of our trading partners telling us that if this amendment is adopted, we will not have implemented the agreement and that they will not renegotiate the agreement. We cannot afford to have them walk away. Let me rebut the arguments raised by the supporters of this amendment. First, we do not need to eliminate our title XI program in order to comply with the agreement. We merely have to scale it back to meet the agreement requirements, just as our trading partners must. We will achieve balance instead of a war of escalation that we cannot and will not win. Second, our national security is completely protected under the agreement. The agreement contains an exception that allows a government to back away if it believes its national security interests are at stake. The Department of defense has also sent us a letter stating, and I quote, that ``the Agreement will not adversely affect our national security.'' This statement is powerful evidence that the agreement does not threaten our national security. Third, our negotiators were able to achieve an exception for the Jones Act, something no other country was able to achieve.”