Kevin Brady: “I see faces of trade myself. I recently did a tour of our manufacturing plants. We have over 300 of them in the Eighth…”

“I see faces of trade myself. I recently did a tour of our manufacturing plants. We have over 300 of them in the Eighth Congressional District of Texas from steel mills to paper mills. I watched the workers on those lines working every day to produce those products. Between one-third and one-half of those products are made for sales overseas. What they find is that when they try to compete around the world, they aren't allowed to compete. America is so open for every product from every country. But when we try to sell our products and our goods, what we see are America need-not-apply signs all throughout this world. Our trade policy is to tear down those signs, to give those workers in my plants a chance to sell their products around the world. There is a principle applied to the trade that we deal with today. The principle is, if you or I build a better mousetrap, we should be free to sell it throughout the world without government interference. If someone else builds a better mousetrap, we should be free to buy it for our family or for our business, again without government interference. That freedom to buy, to sell and to compete our products and our skills is an important economic freedom. This trade agreement opens Peru's market, gives us the freedom to sell our products and goods into that country, for our agriculture community, for our manufacturing workers, and for our service community.”