February 06,2001

Floor Statement of Grassley in Support of the Nomination of Robert B. Zoellick


I rise this afternoon in support of President Bush's nomination of Robert B. Zoellick to the position of United States Trade Representative. As Chairman of the Finance Committee, I am pleased to report to my distinguished colleagues that Robert Zoellick is uniquely qualified to represent the United States in the extremely important trade negotiations that will take place in 2001, and in the years to follow.

I will go into some detail about Mr. Zoellick's impressive professional qualifications for this demanding and highly sensitive cabinet post. But before I do, I would like to say a word about Mr. Zoellick's performance at his Finance Committee nomination hearing, which was held on January 30.

I think it is fair to say that Members on both sides of the aisle were highly impressed with Mr. Zoellick's thorough command of complex trade issues, with his broad vision of America's historic leadership role in international trade, and with his understanding of the close cooperation that is required between the Legislative and Executive Branches of government in crafting and implementing an effective United States trade policy.

The nature of the trade issues Congress will deal with this year clearly requires a person of Mr. Zoellick's stature and ability as United States Trade Representative. I would like to briefly mention a few of these trade challenges, and then tell you why Mr. Zoellick is ideally suited to deal with them.

One important trade challenge right around the corner is the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations. The objective of these talks, which are supposed to conclude in 2005, is to create a single free trade zone of nearly 700 million people, stretching from the Arctic Ocean in the North, to Tierra del Fuego in the South.

The FTAA is the single most important economic initiative we have undertaken with Latin America since President Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress in 1961. Latin America is our fastest growing regional trade partner. Roughly 46 percent of all the goods manufactured in this country are exported to our own hemisphere. We export large amounts of our agricultural products to the FTAA countries as well.

Our continued prosperity, and our leadership in world trade, clearly rests on the success of these talks. Yet despite the obvious importance of the FTAA, there is little agreement on the major issues under discussion. It's time to get these talks moving again. And it's time for the United States to take the lead.

The FTAA Ministerial Conference is coming up in Buenos Aires in the first week in April. Two weeks after the FTAA Ministerial, the United States will attend the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Mr. Zoellick knows how important United States leadership is in getting the FTAA talks headed in the right direction. And more importantly, he has the skills and the background to get the job done.

For example, while serving in the former Bush Administration, Mr. Zoellick played a key role in the NAFTA process. At one point during the NAFTA negotiations, when the talks weren't going well, Mr. Zoellick served as a special channel with President Salinas of Mexico to keep the negotiations on track. Also during the former Bush Administration, Mr. Zoellick served as Counselor of the Department of State, and Under Secretary of State for Economics. At the State Department, he helped launch APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group.

The creation of APEC was a tremendous achievement. It is a highly successful international trade and economic forum. APEC's main agenda is to dismantle trade and investment barriers in the region, to strengthen an open, multilateral trading system, and to encourage constructive interdependence by encouraging the flow of goods, services, capital, and technology.

Mr. Zoellick's central role in launching APEC clearly demonstrates his deep commitment to the principle of international cooperation that is at the heart of America's leadership in promoting global free trade. It also demonstrates his broad vision, and his ability to accomplish big things. In recognition of his outstanding service to his country, Mr. Zoellick received the Distinguished Service Award, the State Department's highest honor.

Another important trade challenge this year is to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at the WTO Ministerial to be held later this year in Qatar. The failure of the Seattle WTO Ministerial was a terrible embarrassment for the United States, and a major setback for trade liberalization around the world.

The collapse of the Seattle talks was also a major setback for American agriculture. Without a comprehensive new round of global trade negotiations, it will be extremely difficult for American agriculture to gain access to new markets, and to get rid of the trade-distorting subsidies and barriers that shut our agricultural producers out of foreign markets.

If we lose the momentum for the liberalization of world agricultural markets that we gained with the successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, we may never be able to recover. Here too, Mr. Zoellick's experience demonstrates that he is the right person for the job of United States Trade Representative.

In 1992, when it looked like the fundamental disagreement between the European Union and the United States over agricultural trade liberalization would end the Uruguay Round in failure, Mr. Zoellick helped forge the Blair House Accord, the compromise agriculture agreement that broke the negotiation logjam, and saved the Uruguay Round.

Thanks to Mr. Zoellick's efforts in crafting the Blair House accord, negotiators were able to clear the political hurdles to an agreement. As a result, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture represents the first serious step toward reform of the international rules governing trade in agricultural products.

That Agreement is now the springboard for our current efforts to further liberalize world agricultural trade. Other trade challenges, like the United States-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Vietnam trade agreement, the Singapore free trade negotiations, and the Chile free trade negotiations, are also on the table this year.

Mr. Zoellick's record of achievement clearly demonstrates he has the ability to handle these issues as well. During his distinguished career, he has led various bilateral trade negotiations with the European Union, Korea, and other nations, including the Structural Impediments Initiative with Japan.

We will soon have to begin the hard work of writing legislation to renew the President's fast-track trade negotiating authority. I don't have any illusions that this will be easy to accomplish. But I can't think of any single thing that is more important to restoring America's leadership in trade, and to preserving America's negotiating credibility.

It is certainly true, as many have pointed out, that the United States can start trade negotiations without fast-track negotiating authority. We know this from our experience during the Uruguay Round, when it took two years to get legislation renewing the President's trade negotiating authority through Congress after the Uruguay Round had started.

But that misses the point. The President, any President, needs trade negotiating authority from Congress because his negotiating credibility is diminished without it. That's just as true at the start of formal trade negotiations as it is at the conclusion of negotiations. In fact, the fast-track innovation was designed in large part as a response to the diminished United States negotiating credibility that had resulted from the failure of Congress to implement some of the trade agreements that were concluded during the Kennedy Round. Here again, Mr. Zoellick's record speaks for itself.

Other than former USTR Carla Hills, Mr. Zoellick spent more time than any other Administration official with the Congress to get fast-track authority passed in 1991. So I have great confidence in Mr. Zoellick's ability to work with Congress to get a bill renewing the President's trade negotiating authority through Congress this year.

Finally, Mr. President, let me conclude with a word on why I view Mr. Zoellick's nomination with such enthusiasm. I have looked at his extraordinary record at some length. I have looked carefully at what he has done during the past twenty years in promoting America's trade interests. And that record tells me that Mr. Zoellick understands that trade matters to every American.

It matters to the farmer in my hometown of New Hartford, Iowa, who wants to sell his grain in international markets. It matters to the Caterpillar workers in Illinois who make tractors for sale in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It matters to the Boeing employees in Washington State, who make state-of-the-art aircraft for every major world aircraft market.

And perhaps most importantly, open international markets increasingly matter to millions of small entrepreneurs, who compete for business every day, wherever they find it, anywhere in the world. Bob Zoellick understands that all of these Americans, whether they toil on their farm, punch a clock on the assembly line, or work in the high-tech "New Economy," are able to pay the mortgage, support their families, and make their communities a better place to live because of international trade.

Robert Zoellick is an eminent public servant with an outstanding record of leadership in trade policy who has given much to his country. As Chairman of the Finance Committee, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote to confirm the appointment of this outstanding individual to America's most important trade position. I have come to know him, and to respect him. I know that my distinguished colleagues on both sides of the aisle will, too.