Xavier Becerra: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, this trade promotion authority legislation, as we have heard, is all…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, this trade promotion authority legislation, as we have heard, is all about writing the rules, writing the rules on trade. It is about who will lead or who will retreat on assisting on free and fair trade. This TPA legislation sets forward the instructions on how we will write the rules in any trade agreement. Okay. So who is going to lead in writing the rules? On currency manipulation, where countries, not just the companies, but the countries themselves that want to trade with us are cheating by manipulating their currency to make the value of their goods look less expensive than American products in the same area, when those countries are cheating, what are we going to say should be the rules when it comes to currency manipulation? {time} 1130 Under this TPA, we can't say anything because we are prohibited from including anything in a trade agreement that will deal with currency manipulation. You then have to ask a second question. You are telling me that countries that are going to sign these deals are going to be allowed to cheat when it comes to how they manipulate their currency so their products will look cheaper than ours? We are supposed to depend on those same countries that are cheating to now enforce the rules in these agreements against companies in those countries that are cheating? What kind of instruction is that? What about when it comes to letting people in America know what is in these deals?…”