We live in a global economy. Oregon benefits from that global economy through its resident manufacturers as well as its international ports.
Intel is building a massive new chip processor factory in Hillsboro -- a twin to the $3 billion plant it's already built on the same site. The new facility could employ thousands of Oregonians, and that's on top of the 17,000 state residents that the semiconductor manufacturer already employs.
Meanwhile, one of France's biggest winemakers recently purchased a 279-acre vineyard near Salem. The French vintners want to expand -- and they see a bright opportunity in the Willamette Valley.
The chips manufactured by Intel and the wine produced in Salem are both intended for markets around the globe. But without an expansion of our country's international trade agreements, this may not be possible. Congress can help Oregon reap the benefits of continued international trade by passing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) -- legislation that will help to streamline and facilitate our country's international trade agreements.
Currently, more than one in five of Oregon jobs -- almost 490,000 jobs in total - are connected to foreign trade. These opportunities are growing faster than other types of work and they tend to offer higher wages.
In 2013, Oregon exported over $18 billion in goods. This included over $3 billion in electronic processors and controllers, more than $600 million in semiconductor equipment, and over half a billion in civilian aircraft engines and parts.
Some of the companies that make these products are famous ones like Intel or Tektronix, the Portland-based company that's the world's leading maker of oscilloscopes. But most exporters are small firms, many family-owned and operated. What they all have in common - whether they make Oregon's famous pinots or catch Oregon's signature salmon -- is that they will benefit from easier access to markets now restricted to them.
In fact, of the countries that Oregon's exports reach, our free trade agreement (FTA) partners purchase almost nine times more goods per capita from Oregon than those countries that we do not have agreements with. What's more, nearly half of all American exports go to FTA countries, and in 2012 the United States ran a $58 billion trade surplus in manufactured goods with these nations.
Where the United States has trade agreements, we're creating jobs and sending more goods and services overseas than we have coming back.
Yet the president's power to negotiate additional trade agreements has been stripped. Since 2007, the president has not had TPA; TPA has been around - and provided - to every president since FDR.
This is a time in which we should view the grant of authority as it relates to a president without regard to the current or past occupants of the office. There are sufficient safeguards to protect all sides in this process.
This authority allows the president to negotiate all the details of a trade agreement with a foreign country, subject to congressional guidance. Congress sets the parameters within which the president must negotiate a trade pact if he wishes to avail himself of this "fast track authority. It then requires Congress to vote the bill implementing the agreement up or down without amendments before it's sent back to the president for his signature. This helps to streamline the negotiating process between our government and the leaders of foreign nations and avoids the temptation of Congress to include unrelated items that would not otherwise pass on their own.
TPA upholds Congress' power to accept or reject the president's proposals and, at the same time, makes the arduous process of cutting deals with other nations possible.
For a state like Oregon, whose future is increasingly linked to trade, TPA is vital. Congress must restore TPA to facilitate trade expansion and open our exports to wider markets.