United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act

Floor Speech

Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I thank the chairman for yielding.

America is talking so much now, and there's such a need right now for jobs. There is such a need. Over 9 percent of this country is begging every day for the opportunity to go out and work and earn a living. We have a middle class that is feeling the squeeze because we see disappearing manufacturing. And that's something I'm very concerned about.

In my district in Illinois, we have a very heavy manufacturing base, and when you look at that heavy manufacturing base and the fact that they produce a lot of goods that need to be exported, you have to find a consumer base in order to sell it, and 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside of our country. It would only make sense to create an environment where we can take our goods and in a fair way export them to other countries. Panama, an ally of the United States, currently has a situation where they can charge tariffs on our imports and we don't charge tariffs on imports from them.

This agreement would bring that to a level playing field and allow the people in my district, who literally sweat every day wondering if they're going to have a paycheck tomorrow, the opportunity to enhance their exports, to enhance those American goods that are made in America, but it's great for somebody in the other country to read the product that they buy that also says ``Made in America,'' too.

We have a heavy agricultural district in my area, too. When I look at the farmers and their opportunity to sell overseas their goods and products that we create every day, that's very important. As you know, in business, the ability to be successful means you have to be on the cutting edge and constantly finding markets and places to sell your goods. This does that for us.

I think it's sad that it's taken us this many years to get to this point, and I think we've lost a lot of opportunity costs in the process, but I'm pleased that today we are finally taking up these three agreements. I'm pleased that we're taking up this trade agreement with Panama and that we have an opportunity to really strengthen a bond with a strong ally of the United States, strengthen our exports, and I'm excited that the tens of thousands of people that rely on trade in my district will have an opportunity to sell more goods.

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