Rob Portman: “This is about giving the President the ability to enter into those agreements. This is so straightforward. I cannot…”

“This is about giving the President the ability to enter into those agreements. This is so straightforward. I cannot believe this Congress on both sides of the aisle is not going to allow this administration, on behalf of our country, to negotiate trade agreements with countries that are entering into agreements with other trading blocs and, thus, we are losing markets. The way it currently stands, if we do not have this trading authority, we will not be able to enter into extremely important multilateral agreements that have to do with the future of the U.S. economy. Over one-third of our growth is directly related to exports. We have the freest country in the world in terms of trade. Other countries have higher barriers. It is very simple. We want to knock those barriers down.”