Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we have had this important conversation this week about trade policy in the United States, and it is an important one. Clearly, one of the great things that will help us grow our economy in the years to come is further free trade. As we have these pending free-trade agreements--and most everyone around here I have run into says they are in favor of, including the President, the one with South Korea, the one with Panama, the one with Colombia--there has been a prerequisite put in place by those in charge in the Chamber, and that is we deal with the TAA issues. That is why we are on the issue today, which clearly has been linked, free-trade agreement and the TAA law. I wish to talk a little bit about the free-trade agreements because we are continuing to wait for them to be sent down to us. These agreements would increase U.S. exports by billions of dollars and create jobs here in the United States. For example, there are exports of about $12 billion annually, adding about $14 billion to the U.S. economy. These are real numbers. The South Korea agreement alone, for example, is estimated to add as many as 70,000 American jobs. These benefits are not realized because the President has not submitted these for approval to this body or to the Congress. The debate we are having is not a new one. The trade adjustment assistance, or TAA, has been a policy of the United States, for better or worse, since the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.…”