Today the Washington International Trade Association held the third panel of a four part breakfast series on the Transpacific Partnership (TPP). The title of today’s panel was “U.S. Priorities and Objectives” and focused on many of the important issues that are part of the TPP talks when it comes to manufacturers, exporters, American workers and the environment.

The NAM's Linda Dempsey speaks during a WITA panel discussion on the TPP.

National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Vice President of International Economic Policy Linda Dempsey participated in the panel discussion along with Stephen Schaefer of ECAT, Ilana Solomon of the Sierra Club and Thea Lee of the AFL-CIO. The panelists engaged in a robust discussion on what each group is looking for in the TPP negotiations.

Market opening agreements like the TPP are essential to the competitiveness of manufacturers in the United States. With 95 percent of the world’s consumers outside of the U.S. we have to find ways to lower trade barriers to increase U.S. manufactured goods exports. “The U.S. can’t sit around and just sell to itself,” said Dempsey.

One topic the panelists could agree on was the need for strong enforcement of an agreement. It doesn’t do much good to have an agreement with high standards if it is not enforced, which is absolutely necessary to give manufacturers a level playing field.

Today’s panel was a good discussion of the many different points of view on the TPP. Manufacturers are committed to continuing to work with the Administration and Congress to ensure a robust outcome to the TPP negotiations that strengthen opportunities for manufacturers in the United States.

The United States is negotiating its latest, and we hope state-of- the-art, 21st century, free trade agreement (FTA) with eight countries in the Pacific Rim. This TransPacific Partnership (TPP) brings together countries with which we have FTAs (Australia, Peru, Chile, Singapore) and countries with which we do not FTAs, yet have open access to their markets (New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei). This constitutes our third largest export market.

Now that Congress has approved the Korea, Panama and Colombia FTAs, it is critical that the U.S. continue its efforts to expand market access for American companies. The National Association of Manufacturers today joined more than 40 other trade associations across the entire spectrum of U.S. industry to tell President Obama the United States must continue its longstanding and bipartisan approach of seeking a comprehensive agreement that covers every commercial sector and sub-sector of the U.S. economy.  To do anything less is to diminish the commercial value of the resulting agreement, and diminish the prospects the TPP holds for enhancing America’s competitiveness in the global economy.

Especially in these challenging economic times, achieving a comprehensive agreement that provides full reciprocal market access and does not exclude any sector, sub-sector, product or service from the market-access provisions or core rules of the final TPP is vital. It is also just as vital to ensure that there is no exclusion from any core principles that protect our investors and our intellectual property rights.

The NAM calls on the Administration to negotiate the broadest and deepest agreement and work with negotiating partners and domestic stakeholders to address sensitivities and concerns in a way that ultimately ensures the most comprehensive outcome possible and sets the stage for future expansion of the TPP to additional markets in Asia. We at NAM know that trade liberalization that enhances access to markets for our manufacturers and workers produces high paying jobs—jobs we sorely need now.

Stephen Jacobs is senior director of international business development, National Association of Manufacturers.