Orrin Hatch: “later today, at around 5:30 p.m., DC time, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and representatives from 11 other…”

“later today, at around 5:30 p.m., DC time, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and representatives from 11 other countries will meet at a ceremony to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, Agreement. It is no secret that the TPP Agreement has the potential to do a lot of good for our country. Taken as a whole, the 12 countries involved in this agreement had a combined GDP of $28.1 trillion in 2012, nearly 40 percent of the world's total economy. In that same year, our goods and services exports to TPP countries supported an estimated 4 million jobs here in the United States. According to the International Monetary Fund, the world economy will grow by more than $20 trillion over the next 5 years and nearly half of that growth will be in Asia. This agreement, if done right, will give the United States a distinct advantage in setting the standards for trade in this dynamic and strategically vital part of the world. It is also no secret that many stakeholders and Members of Congress, including myself, have some doubts as to whether the agreement meets the high standards necessary to gain congressional approval. I have expressed those concerns many times here on the floor and elsewhere. I won't go into any more detail about them today. Instead, I want to talk about what will happen after the agreement is signed. Even though there is a signing ceremony in New Zealand today, that is not the end of the process for TPP in the United States.…”