Extending Permanent Normal Trade Relations to Vietnam

EXTENDING PERMANENT NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS TO VIETNAM -- (House of Representatives - November 13, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Vietnam.

Just two months ago, the Vietnamese government arrested my constituent, a U.S. citizen, Cong Thanh Do. Mr. Do had posted comments on the Internet while at home in San Jose, California advocating that Vietnam undergo a peaceful transition to a multi-party democracy. For exercising his U.S. Constitutional right of free speech, the Vietnamese arrested him and held him in prison for 38 days in Vietnam without charges.

Other U.S. citizens have been imprisoned in Vietnam for what appear to be political reasons, including the sister of another one of my constituents, Thuong Nguyen ``Cuc'' Foshee.

Although both are free today and back in America, I am concerned about hundreds of Vietnamese nationals as well as other U.S. citizens imprisoned in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government has repeatedly violated human rights. Hundreds of Vietnamese have been imprisoned, put under house arrest, or placed under intense surveillance for simply practicing their religion or speaking out about democracy and human rights in Vietnam.

Following his return to the U.S., Mr. Do provided me a disturbing list of over 130 Vietnamese nationals and U.S. citizens he believes are currently imprisoned in Vietnam as prisoners of conscience or harassed by the government for simply speaking about democracy and human rights.

In addition, groups such as the Human Rights Watch have published reports of 355 Montagnard prisoners of conscience currently imprisoned in Vietnam.

I am not alone in my concerns about Vietnam's human rights record. The Department of State, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and various Vietnamese-American groups have documented egregious violations of religious freedom, human rights, and free speech in Vietnam.

I have been a supporter of international trade. But I also know that the Vietnamese Government would correct their behavior in order to perfect a trading relationship with the United States. Given the alarming human rights violations currently underway in Vietnam, it seems a mistake for our country to grant PNTR to Vietnam without requiring that the Vietnamese Government make significant improvements in respecting human rights, free speech, and freedom of religion.

The United States of America has a long and honorable tradition of safeguarding freedom and human rights throughout the world, especially with our trading partners. We should not make an exception for Vietnam.

At a time when we are spending 8 to 10 billion dollars a month and shedding the blood of our American servicemen and women proclaiming the cause to be democracy for Iraq, how is it that we can fail to use our mere economic leverage to try to achieve human rights in Vietnam?

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill which would grant permanent normal trade relations for the government of Vietnam.

Why are we here today ready to give Vietnam--a country with an abysmal human rights record, which continues to abuse and oppress its own people--favorable trade status?

I am strongly opposed to this action and urge defeat of this legislation.

There are people in Vietnam right now, as we debate this bill, in jail for their support of religious freedom, democracy, and freedom of speech--universal freedoms on which our country was built. If someone says they are for you, but do not want to be identified with you, how much are they really for you? Are we for democracy and religious freedom in Vietnam or are we more interested in promoting trade?

The answer to that question may lie in the incredible news just announced today that the State Department has conveniently removed Vietnam from its list of Countries of Particular Concern--a designation stamped on countries with egregious violations of human rights and religious freedom. Vietnam had been on the list in the company of China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

I stand with the dissidents who remain in jails across Vietnam because they spoke out against human rights abuses being committed and condoned by their own government. Mr. Speaker, I call on this House to stand with the people of Vietnam who deserve our support as they seek democracy and freedom from oppression.

Later this week the President will make a historic trip to Vietnam. I have called on him to meet with Vietnamese human rights activists here in the United States, and I have asked that he meet with dissidents in Vietnam. I have asked President Bush to stand with the dissidents in the way that the Reagan administration did with regard to the Soviet Union. It is unacceptable for the United States to encourage democracy and respect for human rights and then fail to hold Vietnam to this standard before granting them PNTR.

Earlier today there was a groundbreaking ceremony on the National Mall to launch the memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I ask my colleagues to think about Dr. King's words before voting on the legislation before us: ``In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.''

If the Bush administration and this Congress want to be friends with those fighting for democracy, religious freedom and an end to human rights abuses, the silence should be broken. I call on the President and our ambassador in Vietnam to meet with dissidents and to break the silence about human rights abuses in Vietnam.

Mr. Speaker, our actions today are more than how much the U.S. will trade with Vietnam. The decisions we make will reach the 83 million Vietnamese people who are struggling to live in freedom. What will our answer be for them?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r109:./temp/~r109dg3imV