Ken Calvert: “the growth of services in the U.S. economy has been a tremendous boon to our Nation's GDP and the rate of employment.…”

“the growth of services in the U.S. economy has been a tremendous boon to our Nation's GDP and the rate of employment. The benefit of services trade are particularly evident in my home State of California, and at the local level. In California, for example, services account for more than 85 percent of the State economy and 77 percent of employment. There are over 5,500 establishments exporting professional, scientific and technical services in California. Those establishments alone provide jobs for more than 130,000 people, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. Software publishers, broadcasting and telecommunications services employ another 130,000 people in California, a number which would grow if new trade agreements that would reduce barriers to services and tariffs on industrial products and agriculture are signed. The services sector needs successful trade negotiations that expand substantially opportunities for U.S. trade in services. Trade negotiating authority plays a crucial role in our country's ability to negotiate, and implement, these negotiations; and so we need to move these negotiations along.”