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Setting the Record Straight on TPA

June 8, 2015
Weekly Columns

For a while now, there have been thoughts, ideas, claims and all sorts of opinions floating around about Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and whether or not it’s a good thing for America. It has become a subject of conversation in recent days because of the trade deal that’s currently being negotiated through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that includes 12 countries, of which President Obama is acting on behalf of the United States. Since lawmakers are expected to take up legislation related to TPA in the coming weeks, it’s important to understand the background on what it is and what it’s supposed to achieve.

Trade Promotion Authority is not about what deal is negotiated through TPP or any other future trade negotiation. Rather, it’s meant to define the authority that the president should be allowed to exercise in trade negotiations and how Congress can rightfully scrutinize any deal reached with our partners abroad, have oversight throughout the process and demand accountability of the president.

Certainly, Republican lawmakers and the American people are well aware of President Obama’s tendency toward executive overreach. As conditions currently stand, however, the president has more trade authority now than he would after passage of TPA and he has less accountability from Congress now than he needs. Under the TPA legislation that is expected soon for consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congress gets to be more involved, provide a list of objectives for deal-making and in the process rein in the president’s authority. That isn’t and shouldn’t be cause for disagreement.

America is a place brimming with hardworking people who invent and make great products or provide important services. The world is also a bustling marketplace that could benefit from our products and services. In fact, 96 percent of the world’s customers reside outside of the United States. That means that there is undoubtedly untapped demand for American-made products, including products originating in Oklahoma. When the door is opened to meet new customer demand abroad, it follows that new jobs are created to handle higher supply of a product. That’s why trade is a good thing.

While America already exports a lot of products today, there is still much more opportunity. Roughly one out of every seven jobs currently found in America are export-related. In Oklahoma, that materializes to 398,589 trade-related jobs across the entire state. Broken down further, 65,324 of those jobs are located right in the Fourth District of Oklahoma. Just imagine how that number could grow if doors were opened to ease export-capability around the world.

Again, TPA does not support or oppose specific trade deals being negotiated. It simply arms the president with the authority to negotiate and guides him through a list of objectives from Congress. At the end of the day, Congress maintains the final word on any deal reached, whether it’s TPP or other partnership opportunities in the future.