Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolution

Floor Speech

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Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, 20 years ago this week, Joe Biden and other politicians from both parties gave a gift to the Communist Party: permanent most favored nation status.

Permanent most favored nation status is a trade privilege we grant most countries that are members of the World Trade Organization. It places lower tariffs and fewer restrictions on those countries' goods. But historically our trade laws have treated hostile countries differently--Communist countries, countries that cheat on trade, human rights abusers; in other words, countries exactly like Communist China.

A few of those countries, like Cuba and North Korea, are denied most favored nation status outright. What few goods their miserable socialist economies produce face steep tariffs, sanctions, and other restrictions, which is one reason you don't see too many ``Made in North Korea'' items on your local store shelves.

Other countries historically have faced a yearly review of their trading privileges with the United States in which the President and Congress can assess the human rights and trade abuses ongoing in those countries and then determine whether it is in our interests to grant those trading privileges for another year.

Communist China was one of those countries subject to yearly review-- at least it was until 20 years ago. This yearly review led the spirited debates about whether Communist China should be stripped of its trading privileges or whether it deserved a temporary reprieve. It put a spotlight on the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party, and it used our market as leverage to advance our interests. Of course the Chinese Communist Party didn't like that--not one bit; neither, sadly, did many bankers and businessmen here in America, who seemed a little more concerned about making money than pressuring Communist China to reform. This China lobby pushed hard to get rid of the annual vote and give China permanent most favored nation status, and 20 years ago this week, they finally won.

Here is how Senator Joe Biden defended his vote at the time to give a big gift to Communist China. He said:

Trade concessions are all one-way in this deal. They drop tariffs. They drop non-market barriers. They agree to increased protection of our intellectual property laws.

That is what Joe Biden said at the time, but is that what actually happened? Were all the trade concessions ``one way,'' as he predicted? In fact, they were, but not the way Joe Biden intended because all the trade concessions ended up benefiting Beijing, while devastating America.

The main consequence of that decision was to make it harder to put tariffs on China in response to human rights and trade abuses, and it sent a strong signal to businesses and banks that China was open for business for good. The gold rush to China was on.

In the two decades that followed, America invested more than $200 billion in China. Most of that money went to building factories and training workers over there, while our factories were dismantled and our workers were laid off.

In the 6 years that followed that vote, manufacturing employment plunged by 18 percent as cheap Chinese goods flooded our market and as our factories were dismantled and offshored to China.

The vote to give trade privileges to Communist China is just more evidence of the alternate reality that politicians like Joe Biden have been living in for decades. There is a consistent pattern. They treat our enemies like friends and our friends like enemies, and the American people suffer because of it.

Twenty years of getting ripped off by China is more than long enough. That is why I am introducing a bill that would repeal China's permanent most favored nation status and return us to the older way, where China's trade status would be assessed by the President and Congress every year.

My bill would make businesses think twice before sending more American jobs overseas to China, and it would add new human rights and trade standards that China must work toward to qualify for most favored nation status. This would put a spotlight on the Communist Party's most recent crimes, including its use of slave labor and concentration camps in Turkestan.

Ultimately, repealing China's most favored nation status would force regular votes in Congress, so politicians like Joe Biden would have to go on the record about whom they serve--the American people or the interests of the Chinese Communist Party ______

By Mr. THUNE (for himself and Mr. Rounds):

S. 4616. A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to transfer certain National Forest System land to the State of South Dakota, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

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