WASHINGTON, D.C. — All this week, House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been calling into radio stations across the country to explain just what trade promotion authority is all about and why trade is so important to America’s economy. Here are some highlights.

WGN Radio, 720 AM – Chicago, IL

“[With] this trade promotion authority bill we’re passing, we’re putting Congress in the driver’s seat. We’re telling the administration, ‘Here’s how you do a trade agreement. Here’s the new standard of accountability and transparency.’ The country has to see what’s in these agreements before you can even sign it, and then Congress decides whether it goes into place or not. And only Congress can change our laws.”

KSL News Radio, 1160 AM – Salt Lake City, UT

“It’s because I don’t trust President Obama that I am doing trade promotion authority this way. It is because of my distrust, and the power that they have tried to take in the executive branch, that the legislative branch, through trade promotion authority, is asserting its power over the executive branch.”

WRJN News Talk, 1400 AM – Racine, WI

“We’ve added more levels of accountability. Congress says, ‘Well, we want to see a trade agreement.’ Congress gets to participate in the negotiations if they want to, and see what’s going on. The country, the public sees the agreement 60 days before the president can even sign the agreement and send it to Congress. And then Congress has the vote, the final approval as to whether the agreement goes into place or not. So the president just negotiates the agreement. Congress decides whether the trade agreement is good or not, and whether it takes effect or not.”

WLS, 890 AM – Chicago, IL

“[TPA] puts Congress in charge of deciding how trade bills go. It puts Congress in charge of making sure that the administration is transparent and accountable to Congress on how trade works. Once we get trade promotion authority, then we can get trade agreements. And the whole deal here is to open up foreign markets to our products. Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers don’t live in America—they live in other countries.  And if we want faster economic growth, if we want more jobs with higher wages, then we need to be able to make and grow more things here in America and sell them overseas. That requires trade agreements.”

KOMO News Radio, 1000 AM – Seattle, WA

“Trade is . . . absolutely necessary for faster economic growth. . . . The kinds of agreements we’re trying to get now, in the 21^st century—different than earlier agreements—are to get other countries to play by our rules, raise their standards to our standards. And if we don’t get these kinds of agreements that do that, then the standards are lowered across the world. Other nations like China write the rules for the global economy, and that does not play to our interests.”

WLIP, 1050 AM – Kenosha, WI

“The reason we need to do trade agreements is because the rest of the world is already going out and getting trade agreements, and that means they’re getting better access, lower tariffs to other countries markets and taking market share for their manufacturers, for their producers.”

WTOP, 103.5 FM – Washington, D.C.

“If we want to have more jobs that pay more wages, you have to open up markets to our products. If we want to make and grow more things in America and sell them overseas, you need trade agreements to do that. . . . In Asia, since the year 2000, there have been 48 trade agreements. We have only been a party to two of them.  And, as a result, our share of exports into Asia has gone down 42 percent. And so we really have to realize that if you’re standing still on trade you’re losing.”

WTMJ News Radio, 620 AM – Milwaukee, WI

“The rules of the global economy are being written right now. There’s no question about that. The only question is who’s writing the rules?  Are we going to write them with our allies? Or are we going to disengage and allow China to write the rules of the global economy, which is not going to be in our interest?”

###