Trade Promotion Authority and its advocates

While many shippers may be on the fence in regard to Trade Promotion Authority, the nation’s major manufacturing lobby is adamantly championing it.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), representing manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states, has sent a letter urging members of Congress to support Title I of H.R. 1314, the Trade Act of 2015 on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), originally introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI).

According to NAM, trade agreements previously negotiated under Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) have helped grow U.S. manufacturing and support good-paying jobs by eliminating foreign barriers, particularly with our 20 free trade agreement (FTA) partners.

The U.S. has a $55 billion manufacturing trade surplus with our FTA partners, which purchase nearly 50 percent of all U.S. manufactured exports although they account for only six percent of the world’s consumers.

Although the U.S. market is largely open to imports, U.S. exports and manufacturers face major barriers in non-FTA countries from tariffs and non-tariff barriers to weak protections for property and innovation, say NAM officials.

Since TPA expired over seven years ago, the U.S. has not completed any major new market-opening trade agreements, while Canada, China, Europe, and other countries negotiate agreements that exclude and disadvantage manufacturers in the U.S.

NAM maintains that H.R. 1314 will reverse this trend by promoting the negotiation of strong new market-opening agreements to help propel increases in U.S. manufactured goods exports that will support the growth of manufacturing and good-paying jobs in the U.S. With strong negotiating objectives to eliminate barriers and protect U.S. innovation and property, important consultation provisions, and Congressional review processes, H.R. 1314 will improve U.S. negotiators’ ability to secure the strongest possible outcomes to level the playing field for manufacturers in the U.S.

The NAM’s Key Vote Advisory Committee has indicated that votes on Title I of H.R. 1314, including procedural motions, may be considered for designation as Key Manufacturing Votes in the 114th Congress.