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Push continues for TPP vote this session

Speaker Paul Ryan is being urged to schedule a vote on the Trans Pacific Partnership in the lame duck session of Congress.  Ryan has previously said he doesn’t have enough support to pass the TPP agreement this year.  His Democratic colleague Ron Kind from Wisconsin would still like to have the vote scheduled.   Kind told Brownfield, “It’s not surprising that Members of Congress may want to sit on that fence of neutrality as long as they can, but votes will never really materialize until you get something scheduled, and that’s what I’m communicating with Speaker Ryan and with Mitch McConnell that you really need to schedule this for a vote and then people will really focus on it and make a decision accordingly.”

Kind supports passing TPP, and says it’s important to be a part of making the ground rules for future trade.  “We’re already trading with these nations.  I’d rather have it competing on our rules, our standards, our values, which is reflected in this trade agreement rather than having China write the rules of trade, and then us trying to compete from the outside in.  That’s really what’s at stake.”

Both Presidential candidates have come out in opposition to the TPP agreement, but many Members of Congress and business organizations are hoping it will pass before the end of the year.

Kind says TPP is extremely important for his home state of Wisconsin’s farmers and manufacturers. “One third of the agricultural acres planted in Wisconsin are export bound.  I’ve been to numerous manufacturing up and down the Congressional district who are very dependent on exports and being able to trade overseas, so just for the sake of our own state’s economy, I hope we can find a way to get this done.”

The Dairy Business Association, American Farm Bureau, and the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association are just some of the ag groups supporting passage of TPP.