Time to Renew Job-Creating Trade Promotion Authority

Today, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the Obama Administration’s trade agenda, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman – the nation’s chief trade negotiator – said the renewal of bipartisan, job-creating Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) was a top priority and reiterated the President’s support for swift action:

“As the President made clear last week, the Administration is committed to securing bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority. America has always been strongest when it speaks with one voice, and that’s exactly what Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA helps us do.”

Sought by every President since FDR, TPA empowers our nation by creating a partnership between Congress and the President to make sure that trade negotiating priorities are set and that trade deals get done right.

Strong, high-standard trade agreements help open new markets and create more customers for American manufacturers, farmers, and service providers. This means new economic opportunities and more high-paying American jobs.

Take a look at the facts:

Better, High-Paying American Jobs:

U.S. trade with free trade agreement (FTA) countries supports 17.7 million American jobs.
American jobs in the manufacturing sector related to the export of goods pay on average 18 percent more than other jobs.
American exporting plants increase employment 2 to 4 percent faster annually than plants that do not export.

More Economic Opportunity for American Job-Creators:

Since 2002, U.S. goods exports to FTA partners have more than doubled.
In 2012, $718 billion or 46 percent of American export products went to FTA partners.
That same year, America’s FTA partners bought 12.8 times more goods per capita from the U.S. than non-FTA partners.

Given that the United States is currently engaged in some of the most ambitious trade negotiations in the nation’s history – including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (T-TIP), the time to renew TPA is now.

Source: Business Roundtable, How the U.S. Economy Benefits from International Trade & Investment

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