Jack Reed: “Let me just, in the remaining 3 minutes, say that individuals, colleagues who come to the floor and just talk slogans…”

“Let me just, in the remaining 3 minutes, say that individuals, colleagues who come to the floor and just talk slogans about free trade have not, I think, understood what is going on. Why does Japan run a $47 billion a year surplus with the United States? Because they exclude our goods. Why does China run a multibillion-dollar surplus with the United States? Because they exclude our goods; and because they manipulate their currency to reduce the wages, effectively, of their workers; because they are insensitive to environmental quality; because they claim, for cultural reasons, historical reasons, they don't have to abide by intellectual property rules or anything else. Those are the real issues that we face concerning our ability to compete in the world economy. What does this legislation do about those things? Ignores workers' rights; ignores environmental quality; and to a great degree it ignores currency coordination as major negotiating objectives. In effect what we said is: Listen, we are going to give the President fast-track power to do everything except what is most important to be done. And that is our objection.”