Retailers urge approval of TPA renewal legislation
The USA’s National Retail Federation (NRF) has urged members of the House to approve legislation renewing presidential Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) when the measure comes up for a vote this week.
With the legislation’s provisions allowing Congress to set the negotiating objectives for trade agreements and oversee the executive branch during negotiations, the Federation is arguing that TPA will strengthen the role of Congress in trade policy. The NRF said that retailers must source their goods from both the United States and other countries around the world in order to provide their customers with the products they want at the prices they can afford. The ability to conduct commerce free of foreign and domestic trade barriers, said the NRF, is therefore absolutely essential to the health and growth of the nation’s retail industry and the jobs of the over 22 million Americans employed in retail — over one-fifth of the entire U.S. workforce.
