Barry Gardiner Quotes

But, we have had the debate in our country now for a number of years as to whether or not free trade agreements are good for economic growth and economic opportunity in creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty.

It's not just free trade verses protectionism any longer, you've got the concepts of managed trade and reciprocity, and environmental issues.

There is nothing inconsistent between standing up for free trade and standing up for American workers.

U.S. trade policy is not just about the relationship between our nation and other countries. It is part of a larger conversation about living wage, consumer protection, job security, and a better quality of life for all Americans.

Trade accords had been a staple of the post-World War II world, providing a mechanism for economic growth, development, and association with friends and allies, and a means of reining in would-be adversaries who otherwise would have little incentive to act with restraint.

In May 2007, congressional Democrats and the Bush administration agreed to a plan to include environmental and international labor standards in upcoming trade agreements.

Because countries often have differing political and economic systems, agreements are needed to protect those invested in trade.

Before we move forward with new efforts to lower the barriers to international free trade, we must review the consequences of the policies of the past and address the problems of the present.

We had Taiwan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Oman open their markets to our beef, and we're excited about that.

It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets.

The biggest share of U.S. exports to the six CAFTA nations is not the traditional job-creation kind. These are products that are not consumed in the purchasing nations.

Foreign trade can no longer be dealt with apart from other domestic economic policies and concerns. Governments often employ trade policies less for commercial ends than to achieve other goals- economic, political, and social.

Before the war the trade agreements program was an instrument for defense against the epidemic of destructive and demoralizing trade warfare. Today, with the end of the great holocaust finally within sight, this same instrument is transformed into a powerful device for shaping a better world.

The best way to help countries around the world is to help them with trade.

Trade agreements are what you make of them.

We can’t influence other countries’ decisions if we send them a message that we’re backing away from trade.

The more we can open the border [with the US] the more we can develop.

Free trade is the result of prosperity rather than the cause of prosperity .... Without growth over a long period of time you will not have a political commitment to free trade.

We could not get NAFTA passed today with the current Congress…. We’ve got to combine trade liberalization with a broad-based sharing of the fruits of our productivity.

When you export unprocessed goods, in simple words, you are exporting jobs, taxes, and other key economic opportunities... it is high time we stopped this outdated trade system.

The world needs rules. We can’t operate in the new world without rules, and that’s what trade agreements are.

Free trade is good but not as good as fair trade.

[N]o real leader can aspire to champion both the logic and the morality of free trade without confronting the practice that undermines both: currency manipulation.

A lot of people believe, and I do at times, that some of our trade agreements are lopsided, and we've got to look at them. But that doesn't mean that we're going to put a tariff on everything.

Most Republicans and the business community extol the virtues of trade, depicting it as an engine of economic progress, while most Democrats and unions attack the exportation of American jobs, claiming that trade agreements are destroying our economy.