David Thomas: “I cannot imagine us trying to set up a trade bill and 435 folks trying to deal with that. So I am not in agreement…”

“I cannot imagine us trying to set up a trade bill and 435 folks trying to deal with that. So I am not in agreement entirely that we ought to take away the trade authority to negotiate and then bring it to the Congress. Presidents have had that, and hopefully they will continue to have that. The main constituency of the Senator from North Dakota, of course, is agriculture. Forty percent of agricultural products go into foreign trade. Obviously, we all want trade agreements to be fair and advantageous. I also have to respond a little bit to the molasses issue. We worked on that for several months, and it has been cured, as a matter of fact. The idea that nobody stood up to it is not accurate. The court has ruled, and that is no longer being done. It was being done, and it was wrong, but we brought it up through the court, and it is no longer the case. So trade is always difficult, and certainly I feel strongly about it from time to time, too. We are in a world where billions of dollars move around the world every day. We are going to have to trade.”