Marsha Blackburn: “over the past few months, we have spent a great deal of time in this Chamber discussing our adversarial relationships…”

“over the past few months, we have spent a great deal of time in this Chamber discussing our adversarial relationships with other countries, but today I want to draw attention to a truly great economic and foreign policy victory negotiated with one of our adversaries. In fact, it was signed just a few hours ago. When it comes to trade, we have devoted most of our energy to drafting and promoting the benefits of the USMCA, but we have also gotten a great start on two other trade deals--those that were negotiated with Japan that went into effect January 1 and also with China, signed today. We are looking forward to this Chamber passing the USMCA this week and sending it to the President's desk. Back home in Tennessee, what I hear from our agriculture community is, we want trade--consistent, dependable, respectful, and fair trade. Entrepreneurs depend on consistent, productive trade relations to keep their businesses up and running and to put food on their employees' tables. These Tennesseans play a special role in the U.S. relationship with China. In 2017, we exported $2.7 billion worth of goods to China. That is from the State of Tennessee. Imports from China accounted for 7.3 percent of Tennessee's GDP in 2018. They are our third largest trading partner, after Canada and Mexico. Let me tell you, when things go south with the Chinese, Tennesseans feel the heat because of our ag trade.…”