Political Quotes

“I stand in firm support of House Joint Resolution 51, which approves the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, grants NTR status to Vietnam, completes the normalization of our diplomatic relations begun in 1995. A failure to support this key legislation risks undercutting longstanding U.S. foreign policy objectives in Southeast Asia, damaging the credibility of the reform faction within the Hanoi government, and causing Vietnam's 80 million people to slide backwards toward isolationism. In 1986, Hanoi initiated a policy of doi moi, or ``economic renovation.'' For the first time the government encouraged private business start-ups and permitted inward foreign investment. As a result, Vietnam sustained on average nearly 8 percent annual GDP growth and welcomed $8.3 billion in foreign investment during the 1990s. I visited Vietnam this past April and was struck by its 92 percent literacy rate, its thriving entrepreneurship, and the thousands of zooming motorbikes. Industrial parks now line the suburbs of the major cities, and government is planning to open a stock exchange in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. As GDP has doubled and per capita income has risen 60 percent since 1990, a small but growing, consumer-oriented middle class is taking root. Signed in July 2000, the U.S.-Vietnam BTA will buttress these enormous economic and social reforms. The BTA represents the most far-reaching and comprehensive trade agreement ever negotiated with a non-market economy country.”