The Trade Debate

House Passes China Trade Bill 237-197

(CBS)  The following are excerpts from remarks made during the House of Representatives’ debate on the issue of granting normal trade relations to China.

Dick Armey, R.-Tex.

"I believe free and open trade is not only the best way to make China a free and open nation, but it may be the only way…When the people of China are free to transact in world markets and when they share this information about freedom, they will learn the lessons of liberty…and they will demand it of their nation."

Charlie Norwood, R.-GA

"Our choice will determine whether citizens in those masses of humanity, locked in darkness continue to believe in America as the great beacon of human decency and divide, a nation whose light all mankind can see—that liberty still shines brighter than gold."

David Bonior, D.-Mich.

"You can have free markets without free people but it often doesn’t come to a good end: Chile's Pinochet, Indonesia's Suharto.…It wasn’t free trade that won women the right to vote or beat Jim Crow.…While trade may make a handful of investors wealthy,…democracy is what makes nations prosperous."

Charles Rangel, D.-N.Y.

"How can we afford to look over a billion people, knowing that if we ignore them that the Asians and the Europeans will not? This gives us an opportunity to go into those markets.…We cannot forget as Americans that we have blemishes on this human rights issue. We have descendents of slaves in this body. We have people that live in the United States without education without hope without running water. Let’s give America the opportunity to be all that she can be."

Speaker Dennis Hastert, R.-Ill.

"I say to the people of China that we want to send you our corn and our farm machinery and our telecommunications equipment. But as we do, we’re going to send along something more, free of change. We’re going to send you a glimpse of freedom."

Randy Cunningham, D.-Calif.

"Where do we want China to be twenty years from now? I think we have an ability to open up these markets and move them to the right rather than back to the left."

Corrine Brown, D.-Flor.

“China has violated four previous treaties…we cannot trust the WTO to look out for the people we cannot trust China to look out for the people."

Marty Meehan, D.-Mass.

"The answer is not turning our back on China. There is a claim here that we have to choose between American prosperity and human rights. I say, choose both."

Elliot Engel, D.-N.Y.

"This vote defines what kind of nation we want to be. There’s no doubt business will make a lot of money if this passes. But are we only for the almighty dollar or for morality and doing what’s right? The almighty dollar or human rights? The almighty dollar or American jobs?"

Charles Stenholm, D.-Tex.

"Without a doubt, this agreement is good from an economic sandpoint, from a human rights standpoint, from a national security standpoint. Nearly every industry in the United States will see a direct benefit from tariff reductions."