Rob Portman: “I appreciate the opportunity to come to the floor to talk a little about the customs legislation that is now before us.…”

“I appreciate the opportunity to come to the floor to talk a little about the customs legislation that is now before us. As my colleague from Ohio just talked about, there are some very important provisions in this legislation that help to ensure that, yes, while we are expanding exports, we are also ensuring we have a more level playing field for our workers and our farmers. My State of Ohio is a State where we like exports. We have about 25 percent of our factory jobs there because of exports. But we want to be sure we are getting a fair shake. Working with Senator Brown and others, we put together some great provisions that are going to be part of this customs legislation. I am hopeful we can get this passed. It is part of the Customs bill as it passed in the Committee on Finance, but I am also hopeful it will be in whatever provision goes over to the House and also is signed by the President into law. Growing exports, of course, is a top priority--I hope it is a top priority for everybody here in the Chamber--and therefore trade-opening agreements are a good idea because we want to knock down barriers for our farmers and our workers, who are doing everything we have asked them to do to be more competitive and yet still face unfair trade overseas. So we want to knock down those barriers. Some are tariff barriers and some are nontariff barriers. Where we have a trade agreement, we tend to export a lot more.…”