Both Bill Clinton and the Dubya regimes have contributed to what is now a crisis situation. The bottom line is that we need a comprehensive trade policy. We cannot continue with the same neoliberal trade agreements and the same free trade school of thought as before. We will end up bankrupt, our highways will be owned by the French, our tech companies by India, and our retail by China. We will have no market for innovation, for job opportunity, for entrepreneurs.
Trade is one issue we don't focus enough on, in my opinion.
June 3, 1998
Clinton Proposes Renewing China's Most-Favored Trade StatusCongressional reaction mixed amidst larger China policy issues
House Speaker Newt Gingrich welcomed Clinton's recommendation for renewing MFN status for China, and vowed to work in a bipartisan manner to ensure that China receives it from Congress.
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The lawmakers told Clinton, "We welcome the determination you made today to recommend the renewal of MFN trade status for China, and we pledge to work with you in a bipartisan manner to preserve our longstanding policy of commercial and diplomatic engagement with the Chinese. Seeking to keep China open to the West has proven to be the most effective way to advance our democratic values in this turbulent region of the world -- a policy we are committed to maintaining."
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Many members of Congress are not as positive about the president's announcement as Speaker Gingrich.
House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt issued a statement Wednesday opposing Clinton's plan to extend China's trading status for another year. Gephardt said China has not significantly improved its human rights record and "America must stand for more than money." Gephardt has consistently opposed Clinton on China's most-favored-nation status, only to lose when the contentious issues comes to a vote. But Democratic opponents say they have a better shot at defeating the president this year because of new questions about Clinton's China policy.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/03/china.trade/November 20, 2005
Bush presses China about trade, human rightsPresident gets promises but little else from Hu during two day stop
BEIJING - Amid concern over a crackdown on dissidents, President Bush pressed China on Sunday to expand religious, political and social freedom and
won little more than promises from President Hu Jintao to open China’s huge markets to U.S. farmers and businesses.Hu said the two leaders sought an outcome of “mutual benefit and win-win results.”
But their meeting Sunday at the Great Hall of the People on the edge of Tiananmen Square appeared to produce no breakthroughs on U.S. demands for currency reforms in China and
no details about how China would cut its trade surplus with the United States, on track to hit $200 billion this year.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10042690/March 3, 2006
Bush: India a jobs opportunity, not an obstacleIn India, president says ‘America will trade with confidence’
NEW DELHI, India - Applauding newly warming U.S.-India relations, President Bush said Friday that
Americans should not respond to India’s exploding economy by closing itself off to global trade. “The United States will not give into the protectionists and lose these opportunities,” Bush said in a speech at Purana Qila, a historic fort here. “For the sake of workers in both our countries, America will trade with confidence.”
Bush wrapped up his three-day stay in India with a
landmark nuclear deal that is the centerpiece of America’s new romance with this 1 billion-strong democracy, the world’s largest. Later Friday, he was heading to Pakistan for an overnight visit under extraordinary security to a close anti-terror partner struggling with terrorism problems.
“They target democracies because they think we are weak and they think we can be frightened and retreat,” Bush said. “Terrorists have misunderstood our countries. Americans and Indians love our freedom and we will fight to keep it.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11650277/