[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21958]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, workers and farmers in Pennsylvania sold 
products ranging from chemicals to foodstuffs to pharmaceuticals to 
over 200 countries last year. Those sales added up to over $24 billion 
and supported well over a quarter-million jobs. I shudder to think that 
the absence of trade promotion authority, or TPA, could jeopardize 
these jobs and the families they support. Without TPA, American 
negotiators will not have the authority they need to make sure our 
foreign markets will not be undercut or blocked by our competitors.
  H.R. 3005 is a bipartisan compromise TPA bill. We need to pass this 
legislation to make sure that the U.S. negotiators are on equal footing 
with their foreign competitors. If we fail to renew trade promotion 
authority, we will be failing to fight for the American workers who 
depend on exports, and we will be failing to fight for the countless 
new opportunities that the global marketplace will provide for our 
workers in the future.
  America's workers are the world's most productive. The only thing 
that can beat us is unfair foreign trade barriers designed to eliminate 
our competitive edge. So let us support the trade promotion authority 
bill.

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