WASHINGTON — This morning, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) appeared on Fox Business Channel’s Mornings with Maria with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the need to pass trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation. During the interview, Chairman Ryan explained how TPA would put Congress in the driver’s seat for trade deals that could help grow the U.S. economy, balance China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific, and enhance American leadership in the world. To see the full interview, click here.
Excerpts of Chairman Ryan’s appearance follow:
On how TPA puts Congress in the driver’s seat:
“The way we wrote it [TPA], it’s putting Congress in the driver’s seat, along with the administration. We’re basically saying, here’s how this has to be done for Congress to approve it. We want more transparency, more accountability through the entire process. So we think we’ve dramatically improved the way we vet and consider trade agreements with this new trade promotion authority.”
On the need for TPA to grow our economy:
“If you don’t get trade agreements, then you’re losing as a country. It’s important that we open up markets to our products. Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers—they live in other countries, they don’t live here and so that means we need to open those markets to our products, and . . . the short [of it] Maria is, other countries are getting better trade agreements right now. They’re getting better access to these foreign markets and if we want to have more jobs and faster economic growth, we’ve got to trade, and we have got to open markets to our products. That is why we need trade promotion authority: to get good trade agreements.”
On balancing China’s influence in the Pacific Rim:
“What’s important about this agreement is, we’re getting these other countries to play by our set of rules, meaning we will help write the rules with our allies for the global economy, particularly in Asia, instead of China writing it in a way that doesn’t hew to our interests. We want China to do well. We want China to play fairly though. We want China to play by the rules, in the free-market economy, and right now I would argue that they’re not anywhere near that.”
On American leadership in the world:
“But in this 21st-century economy, in this unstable global environment, the lack of American leadership, decline is a choice. And we think this president has made the wrong choice. We want to make a different choice. And by having strong, assertive American leadership that helps us with our jobs and our economy. That helps us make sure that the 21st century global economy grows in the right way so that we can have more opportunity, less friction, more prosperity.”
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