David Thomas: “Mr. Speaker, gee, I thought when we were talking about trade agreements, it was a structure in which, over time, the…”

“Mr. Speaker, gee, I thought when we were talking about trade agreements, it was a structure in which, over time, the trade between those two countries was mutually beneficial and that what we want to do is have a broad-based relationship between people who see benefits going both ways. The Caribbean Basin Initiative, an outreach to our friends in the Caribbean? I would not exactly say that is a reasonable, equal relationship. Free Trade Agreement with Jordan? A clear reward for the kind of friend we have in a very difficult area of the world, probably far more motivated for geopolitical reasons than really for trade. Southern Africa? We have neglected that area for years and years, and what we are doing is reaching out, not enough, way too late. And what we hear are criticisms because we are talking about not 1 percent of someone's amount of trade; we are talking tenths of 1 percent. That is not a long-term mutually beneficial relationship in which the gentleman from Tennessee and the gentleman from New York talked about how we mutually better each other. Those are important humanitarian outreaches under the structure of trade. But if that is what we get without trade promotion authority, we had better have trade promotion authority.”