Excerpts: Speaker of House Hastert on Trade Relations with China
(Cites Republican support for China accession to WTO)The Republican leaders of Congress are preparing to move legislation as soon as possible to facilitate China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert said in a January 10 speech in Chicago before the Mid-America Committee.
Following are excerpts from Hastert's speech:
(begin excerpts)
.... In the broad world of international relations, without question the most dynamic and active area is international commerce and trade. No other aspect of America's relations with the world can match the millions of interactions carried out each day in countries all over the globe by American businessmen. As an agent for democratic change and economic growth and individual prosperity, trade has no equal.
Free trade has transformed state run economies and empowered the individual in countries where the individual has no other source of power. Free trade is the road to democratic change. As such it is one of the most powerful tools for weakening and changing authoritarian regimes.
Trade also fuels our own economic prosperity and provides wealth and opportunity to all Americans. At the same time, trade helps fund our defense, counter-drug, counter-terrorism and foreign policy objectives....
.... (T)he Republican-led Congress is prepared to bring legislation to the floor facilitating China's entry into the WTO [World Trade Organization] at the earliest practical date....
(end excerpts)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)
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