Remarks of Congressman Gregory W. Meeks As Recipient of the National Foreign Trade Council’s2008 Captain Robert Dollar Award

Good evening, ladies and gentleman,

Thank you very much for your warm welcome. And, Secretary Gutierrez, thank you as well not only for you kind words but also for your willingness to reach across the partisan divide to work with me on a variety of issues.

I am truly honored and a bit overwhelmed to be the first Member of Congress to receive the Captain Robert Dollar Memorial Award. Like many of my constituents in the Sixth Congressional District of New York, Robert Dollar was an immigrant who came to our shores seeking a better life. Looking back, no one can dispute that in finding a better life he in turn made life much better for America by strengthening America’s position in world trade, particularly in Asian markets.

Today, immigrants continue to come to America in search of a better life. It is likewise indisputable, in the spirit of Captain Dollar, that their unique energy and ingenuity is making America better.

Although often presented to individuals, the efforts awards acknowledge are rarely the output of a lone individual. My effort to promote mutually beneficial global trade and investment have benefited from the creative contribution of many individuals: My congressional staff, colleagues on both sides of the aisle, business leaders, and government officials here and abroad. In fact, there are several of the individuals here tonight that I’ve worked with in a common effort to reach common ground to promote the common good that accrues from enlarging, enhancing, and encouraging U.S. involvement in global trade. Please permit me to acknowledge: NFTC President Bill Reinsch; the U.S. Trade Representative, Susan C. Schwab; Robert Hoffman, Vice President of Oracle; and my good friend, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez.

I have been able to develop a strong working relationship and a solid friendship with these and many other individuals and their respective institutions primarily because they and I have resisted the temptation to define issues of mutual concern in partisan terms. My fervent hope is that one day in the not too distant future, trade will become a bipartisan, if not a non-partisan issue.

I would also like to thank our keynote speaker, Washington Post business columnist, Steven Pearlstein for his thought-provoking comments. Adjusting, and certainly reconsidering, if not reformulating, our thinking about the challenge of globalization is desperately needed today.

I am truly honored to be a recipient of the National Foreign Trade Council’s 2008 Dollar Award. Although I hasten to add that I have not taken the positions I have on trade and trade agreements to receive awards, accolades, or acknowledgements. I can just see my critics in their confusion saying, “the NFTC awards Meeks dollars for supporting free trade.”

My view is that global trade in general and trade negotiations in particular are among the most important vehicles available to the United States to promote its vital interests while at same time contributing to more equitable global economic development. For me, global trade is not only about the exchange of goods and services between America and other countries, but also the exchange of the talent, skill, insight, innovation, manufacturing technique, technology, friendship and good will that is embedded in those goods and services. I see trade very much as the NFTC said of Captain Dollar: “He saw in foreign trade opportunities to bring the peoples of the world close together in peace and prosperity. He saw in foreign trade, an opportunity to extend to other peoples beyond the sea the blessings and material prosperity of America.”

Today, global trade is very much a two-way street with the sharing of prosperity, innovation, and mutual benefit going back and forth between America and its trading partners. While our economy is experiencing a sustained downturn expressed in last week’s report that unemployment has reached a five year high of 6.1 percent, our export-related sectors continue to create jobs. Beyond that, we have greater possibilities of improving our relationship with other countries and with the international community as a whole through trade than any other mechanism. It seems to me far better that we exchange commodities with the world than animosities.

And while, as I said earlier, my position on trade is not a function of some calculated strategy to gain recognition or campaign contributions, I especially appreciate recognition by the National Foreign Trade Council because the NFTC and I share a common perspective on the importance of a rule-based global economy. The breakdown of the Doha Round of global trade negotiations is setback to this process. But it should not deter us from pressing forward. Just the contrary; the absence of an agreement should reinforce our belief that the prospects of all nations improve with improvements in the stability and predictability of global trade provided, of course, that the rules creating a stable and predictable framework are based on the principle of mutual benefit.

Besides, progress is being made. There are steps that Congress can take to help revive negotiations. There is much that Congress can do to further the process of creating a rule-based system of trade and investment by taking up the many pending trade agreements already up for consideration. Congress should also approve measures to strengthen the negotiating position of the US Trade Representative.

The facts demonstrate the value of mutually beneficial trade agreements. On the whole, free trade agreements are better than not having agreements that define the terms of trade between countries. Generally speaking, each successive FTA has been an improvement over preceding trade agreements. And, they have advanced our national interests.

You and I know this. The problem is that much of the public does not. We have not had an informed national debate on trade. And we surely have not had an informed, well-considered, even-tempered, fact-based national dialogue on trade agreements. On the one hand, those who support rule-based global trade have not been nearly as effective as we need to be in fostering a fact-based dialogue. On the other hand, many of the opponents of rule-based trade have shunned facts altogether while refusing to offer anything approaching a realistic alternative.

Those of us who are committed to bipartisanship must do more to foster a broad dialogue. We must go beyond preaching to the choir. For example, we should talk about how capacity-building provisions of FTAs have helped promote equity and opportunity in Central American and Latin American countries. We should explain how lowering trade barriers have open foreign markets for U.S. businesses u large, medium-sized, and small.

We have failed to fully and continually tell the story of the port cities, high tech towns, agricultural centers, granaries, farmers, niche manufacturers, consumer technology firms, entrepreneurs, university research centers, freighting, shipping, and warehousing companies, entertainment enterprises, business and legal consultancies, and major corporations that are thriving as a function of global trade.

I include myself in this criticism. Recently someone who sought to oppose me in this past Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New York put out a mailing that lambasted me for voting for CAFTA and thus for sending “our jobs” overseas. Of course, the mailing omitted the fact that “our jobs” had gone overseas several decades ago. Clearly, I must do more for instance to help my constituents see that in fact CAFTA and global trade generally have increased the commercial activity out of JFK International Airport. JFK is one of America’s largest and busiest hubs for global trade. Increased activity there means more jobs created loading and unloading cargo, more jobs created by freighter haulers and at warehouses, more jobs generated in maintenance, services, and transport.

In the case of Kennedy Airport, global trade has emerged as a particularly important vehicle for minority-owned and women-owned businesses. I have worked with JFK authorities, the airlines, freighters, service firms, storage operations, the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the Jamaica Business Resource Center, the Queens Borough President, the New York-New Jersey Port Authority, the City of New York, New York State government, and the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration, to develop a minority business incubator associated with global trade in and out of Kennedy Airport.

Our arguments in support of global trade and free trade agreements will be strengthened if we also do more to advocate policies and launch programs that help those Americans who are negatively impacted by trade. Our arguments about the upside of globalization will be more persuasive if we do more to minimize the impact of the downside of globalization.

I have enjoyed working with the National Foreign Trade Council. I look forward to many more years of fruitful endeavor. We have much work to do. There are pending trade agreements that needed to be enacted as soon as possible. New energy and momentum need to be injected into efforts to revive the Doha Round. Steps need to be taken to foster a broad national dialogue on trade. A majority bipartisan congressional coalition in support of rule-based global trade needs to be consolidated. The public needs to be mobilized. And, come January, supporters of rule-based global trade will need to support or pressure the new administration to advance a bold trade agenda.

As in past, so in the present, and even more so in the future, you can count for my support in helping you help America move forward to meet the challenges of global trade, investment, and commerce.

Once again, I am honored to receive the National Foreign Trade Council’s 2008 Captain Robert Dollar Award.

Thank you all.