We’re pleased to see Congress moving forward with bipartisan trade legislation that will help support more good jobs at home and strengthen the American middle class. This is a time for America to choose to lead, not stand on the sidelines. The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act will provide an important set of new tools to fight for American values and American interests.
The Bipartisan Trade Priorities and Accountability Act represents the most significant upgrade to our approach to trade in over four decades, including the requirement that labor and environmental protections be fully enforceable; new requirements for taking on unfairly subsidized foreign state owned enterprises; strong and balanced intellectual property protections; and new consultations and transparency requirements. These provisions put American workers first and reflect the seismic shifts we have seen in the global economy since 2002, when Congress last passed trade promotion legislation.
TPA will move us one step closer to delivering trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) which will open growing markets to “Made in America” exports, protect our workers, and ensure that America, not our competitors, sets the rules of the road on trade. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to pass TPA, along with Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), with bipartisan support.
