Ron Kind: “I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I want to first commend the chairman and the ranking member of the Ways…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I want to first commend the chairman and the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Camp and Mr. Levin, for the work they did in getting this legislation to the floor. I rise in strong support of extending permanent normal trade relations with Russia and Moldova. I also want to commend the chair and the ranking member of the subcommittee, Mr. Brady and Mr. McDermott, for the work that they've done, as well as a gentleman who's not on the floor today--we're going to miss his leadership, he's retiring at the end of this session--Mr. Dreier from California. He's been a great leader on trade policy. He's been a great colleague. We will miss that leadership, and I commend him for his one last lift that he made into making this legislation possible. In a lot of ways I wish we had passed this before the August recess because every day we delay right now we are losing market share in a large and expanding marketplace in Russia. Our goods, our services, our products, the Made in America goods that we should be exporting right now, we're not until we're able to pass this bill. Russia has already agreed to lower their trade barriers and other nontariff barriers for the entry of our goods. Just as one example, Great Britain alone over the last couple of years has expanded their exports into the Russian market by over 80 percent.…”