Some of our trade laws have hurt a lot of honest, reliable and hard-working Tennesseans.  I have cosponsored legislation which would withdraw normal trade relations treatment from products that come from China.  Our textile and manufacturing industries have been hard hit by unfair competition from low wages in foreign countries like China.  The Chinese government turns a blind eye toward products produced with child and slave labor and has little or no respect for international patent and copyright laws.

China has consistently undervalued its currency and not allowed the Yuan to trade freely on the world market in order to make its exports more competitive.  I am part of an aggressive group in Congress trying to bring the Administration to an “activist position” relative to China.  This is why I am a cosponsor of H.R. 1498, the Chinese Currency Act of 2005, which will allow countervailing duties on products from any country that manipulates its currency for competitive advantage.  We need to take China’s growing economic and military power very seriously.