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Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is a major victory on behalf of working Americans. TPA will allow President Bush to open markets that will create higher paying jobs and provide new opportunities for America's farmers and workers to compete and win in international trade. This is yet another major accomplishment for the President's economic agenda.
Trade is a critical component of our economy and TPA will help quicken the pace of our recovery. Trade now represents more than one quarter of our economy and trade has created millions of jobs that pay above-average wages. It has fueled competition and innovation, and helped sustain growth with little inflation. Just as important, it has helped promote the truly global growth and prosperity upon which America’s own growth and prosperity will ultimately depend.
President Bush today said it best when he remarked, Free trade is also a proven strategy for building global prosperity and adding to the momentum of political freedom. Trade is an engine of economic growth. It uses the power of markets to meet the needs of the poor. In our lifetime, trade has helped lift millions of people, and whole nations, and entire regions, out of poverty and put them on the path to prosperity.