Instead, I am going to start where I always do when I am considering legislation. And, that is the simple question of whether normalizing trade with China is good for my constituents back home in Delaware. Delaware's exports to China in many product categories nearly doubled between 1993 and 1998. The agreement reached with China as part of its accession to the WTO would mean dramatically lower tariffs on products critical to Delaware's economy. The economy of southern Delaware, for example, depends on poultry.
China is already the second leading market for American poultry products worldwide.
Poultry producers in Delaware and elsewhere have built that market in the face of both quotas and high tariffs. Under the agreement with China, those quotas will now be eliminated and the tariffs will be cut in half, from 20 to 10 percent. In Delaware, chemicals and pharmaceuticals make up a significant share of my state's manufacturing base. In the chemical sector, China has agreed to eliminate quotas on chemical products by 2002 and will cut its tariffs on American chemical exports by more than one-half. Furthermore, there is not a day that I come to work that I don't remember that Delaware is also home to two automobile manufacturing plants, one Chrysler and one General Motors.