Roy Blunt: “this is a classic example of everything has been said but not everybody has said it yet. One of the great traditions of…”

“this is a classic example of everything has been said but not everybody has said it yet. One of the great traditions of the Senate is to be sure everybody says it. We are going to say it now, and we will continue to say it until the House finally has that vote. It has been pointed out that this agreement was signed well over a year ago. It has been pointed out that our two biggest trading partners are Mexico and Canada, in that order. It has been pointed out that there is lots of focus on agriculture. Every State is an agriculture State. Every State has that as a significant part of their economy. Nobody in the world does that part of the economy more efficiently or more effectively than we do. So that is important. It is important to realize that lots of other things are in trade, as well, but agriculture has to be mentioned a lot until we get this done. Whether I was at the Missouri State Fair in August or the roundtable meetings I was at in our State in October, cost comes up--$88 billion is the agricultural economy in Missouri. We are about the same amount. I think Senator Hoeven said his State is in the top 10. Ours is too. We export about $4 billion worth of ag products. We also export pickup trucks and airplanes and lots of technology from our State. We export our fair share of beer cans and other things that go all over the world. We are going to continue to make that happen. Opening markets make a big difference.…”