Australias ambassador to the u. S. Joe hawky talks about asiapacific trade relations under the Trump Administration and argues its important the u. S. Is part of the Transpacific Partnership or tpp. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is kef levineson. Im the executive director of the International Washington trade association, the Membership Association for the International Trade community. Thank you, ambassador hockey and your wonderful embassy staff, they do a great job here in washington on behalf of your government and were very grateful to them for everything they do, thank you. We would also like to welcome those of you watching on cspan. If you dont know, were the nonpartisan neutral forum for the discussion of trade and Economic Issues and weve had a very busy few months and the last year has been quite eventful on the trade agenda. Over the next five weeks well be hosting five separate events and looking at the congressional trade agenda and the implications for tax reform and trade investment and the impact of nafta in the states and provinces, for that well be welcoming Governor John Hickenlooper of colorado and the premiere of ontario, kathleen wynn, and we hope to announce one or two more governors for that event and in march, well be looking at an event to discuss President Trumps trade enforcement agenda and well be having a separate event discussing brexit one year from the invocation of article 50. Two weeks ago we hosted an overview of the trade agenda with the ambassadors of singapore, chile, gan a mozambique and the European Union. That event, by the way, is on the youtube channel. That event touched on many of the Significant Developments in global trade around the world including the role of china and today we look into a deeper dive into trade with the asia pacific. The hash tag for todays event is global trade and we hope people will use that. Eel leave it the ambassador to sean don. He is the world trade editor for the Financial Times and previously served as Financial Times as the Financial Times world news editor. Hes covered trade for posts around the world and more importantly for today his late father was australian and his father still lives just outside of sydney. When i asked him to do this event and he said hed be more than willing to moderate if i was able to tolerate discussions between two aussies about cricket. With that ill turn the microphone over to sean to do a brief introduction of the ambassador. [ applause ] thank you very much, ken. And i think i said i full hours worth of chatting about krcrick and then rugby. Its an honor to be here as an australian. He is the australian ambassador to the United States and for also those of us who has followed australian politics is someone who is well known as a former minister in a number of different portfolios and Small Business and tourism and Human Services and employment workplace relations and of course, lastly as treasurer of the commonwealth equivalent of finance minister and secretary of the treasury. He was served as the chair of the g20 finance ministers in 2014 and a membership of the leadership in 2015. He was also a regular delegate to the imf and the Asian Development bank and a. P. E. C. Meetings. In other words, hes been around and hes in a great position to talk to us today about trade in the asia pacific and how the australians are. Ambassador . [ applause ] thank you very much, sean. And to you, ken, thank you so much for hosting even though it is in our embassy and it is a great pleasure to be here and im happy to talk about cricket, but i think most of the crowd here wouldnt understand what were talking about so ill leave it to another day. Australia is unapologetically supportive of free trade. We are huge supporters of free and open trade and with ten Free Trade Agreements already in place, we are actively pursuing the high quality Free Trade Agreements, including, of course, the recently concluded tpp 11. And we have a wide network of ftas in force around the indopacific including with the United States, china, korea, japan, singapore, thailand, asean, new zealand and many more and we are currently negotiating further additional agreements. Australia is often referred to as the lucky country. The country with an abundance of land. Were the same size has the continental United States, but with the population slightly larger than florida. We have a massive amount of Natural Resources and we have an innovative and diverse population. One in every four australians was born outside of australia and one in every two australians has at least one parent that was born overseas so diversity is our strength and we were fortunate enough to hold the record among nations for developed growth and our last recession was in 1991. We have entered now our 27th Straight Year of Economic Growth without a significant downturn, but the truth is weve made our own luck and trade liberalization has played a very large part in this, as a nation, australia produces far more than it consumes. Open markets better enable us to sell in excess production which, in turn, generates more opportunities for our people. Since 1964, our twoway trade with the world has increased by a factor of 100. Economic modeling undertaken for the International Economics shows that trade liberalization of the last 30 years added nearly 5. 5 to our annual baseline gdp. For the average australian family this trade period of liberalization is estimated to have seen real income increase by around 8,500 more than it would have been without free trade. Economic deregulation can be painful. I know, as someone that did it over many years in many different parts of the economy. Its not easy and certainly not politically easy to remove government subsidies, particularly in emotionally charged industries such as car manufacturing and textiles. Moreover, governments gain revenue through tariffs and influence through subsidies, but reform keeps us competitive in an increasingly competitive Global Economy. Free trade enables you to stay competitive. If you dont have free trade you fall behind. O australias growing ties has been a massive contributor to our prosperity and it will only improve as the indopacific consumption class or middle class as it grows. As laid out in our recent Foreign Policy strategy paper, within 12 years the indopacific region will produce more than half the worlds economic output. It will consume more than half the worlds food, and it will consume noorly half the worlds energy. If the 19th century was the european century and then the 2 21st century will be and is the indopacific century. The region will be and arguably is the economic powerhouse of the world. Nearly twothirds of the worlds growth will come from asia over the next decade. Nearly twothirds of the worlds Economic Growth will come from asia over the next decade. Within the next 15 years, four of the worlds five largest economies are in our region, in just over ten years, australia asia will be home to a middle class of 3. 5 billion, up from 500 million today. This will create immense opportunities that our unprecedented in global history, and at the heart of this economic miracle is modern china. Its a remarkable story. It is a 10 trillion economy with 6 to Economic Growth. Most economies larger than 4 trillion grow only at 2 to 3 . So china a 10 trillion economy growing at 6 to 7 has unlimited continuing potential, and its going to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Let me give you an example of what that really means. Take chinas singles day. Thats what its called, singles day and its a chinese celebration of being single which originated in chinese universities in the 1990s. It takes place annually on november 11th. Its a great shopping day. Today, singles day is much like cyber monday or black friday where shoppers flock online to take advantage of sales and make purchases. Last year alibaba alone turned over 26 billion in 24 hours. That one platform, alibaba, had twice the revenue in one day of black friday and cyber monday sales combined. One company. Japan, the United States and australia were the highest performing on singles day. This illustrates the extraordinary opportunity of the asian marketplace. The rebalancing of our economy, are educated and adaptive population and natural endowments position this world to capitalize on this growing, urbanizing and incredibly prosperous indopacific region. We seek to maximize for all australians by keeping markets open and deepening economic relationships across the region. This region is not only important to the United States. Its essential for the United States and it will continue to provide enormous opportunities and as an export destination for u. S. Goods and services. Most importantly, its an opportunity for u. S. Innovation where the United States clearly still has a massive economic advantage. Within the next two years australia wases to have a network of Free Trade Agreements and a forwardnegotiating agenda which covers 40 of our global trade. We already have in place, as i said, Free Trade Agreements with seven of our top ten, twoway trading partners and obviously, there is a big focus on the indopacific. Having recently concluded negotiations of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with peru, we are currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with the pacific alliance. Singapore, canada and new zealand are doing the same. The region is not standing still and it will not wait. We are also very engaged in the negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which includes 16 indopacific economies including china and india. Together, they account for a third of the Global Economy. Australia is continues bilateral negotiations with hong kong, indonesia and india. And additionally, the European Union recently announced it will shortly start negotiations with australia for a Free Trade Agreement and the list goes on and on. On the 23rd of january in tokyo the tpp 11 met and finalized the Transpacific Partnership agreement. Tpp economies account for almost 15 of the Global Economy and a significant share of the indopacific economy. It the greatly increase access for all members. For example, we will gain improved access to mexico and canada and we dont currently have Free Trade Agreements with those countries. Over 98 of tariffs will be abolished among tpp member. This includes new reductions, for example, and japans tariffs on australian beef. Further to the reductions wed already secured with our bilateral Free Trade Agreement. We already account for 54 of all beef imports in japan. Its worth about 2 billion to us annually. Australian cattle men get hit with a tariff of just under 30 . Thats dropping to 15 under the Free Trade Agreement. Under the tpp, it drops to 9 . U. S. Cattlemen get hit with 38. 5 . Thats the difference. Under tpp 11, many tariffs go to zero including on important Agricultural Commodities such as cotton, wool, seafood, horticulture and wine. This means, for example, that australian winemakers will have a 16 advantage in japan compared to their counterparts like in the United States. It means new Market Access for Dairy Products for us, into japan, canada and mexico, and while on the short term, australia benefits from the u. S. Being outside of the tpp 11, its certainly not in our longterm interests, and its certainly not in the longterm interest of the United States. We want the United States to be fully integrated into the indopacific region and the tpp 11 delivers that at very low cost. The logic of the tpp is clear and the high standards and comprehensiveness provide us with a strong level of confidence that the deal will bring huge benefits to all who sign up and will act as a positive force for market opening Economic Reforms across the region. The economic dynamism of the indo pacific has undoubtedly benefited the United States and will continue to do so. For example, half of apples revenue comes from sales in the asian markets. J. P. Morgan chase, the most Profitable Bank in the United States has about a quarter of its annual revenues in asian markets alone, and if you go to other areas of services, box office takings in china were well over 6 billion in 2016 and china is the largest and Fastest Growing overseas market for films. Chinaa has an insatiable appetite, and 20 new cinema screens are being built every day in china. Every state in the United States has benefitted in terms of jobs that have been created through exports into asia. For example, jobs exports into asia remains 33,000 new jobs in iowa. 27,000 jobs in pennsylvania and 20,000 jobs in florida and the list goes on. The export trade to asia alone supports half a million jobs in the United States. If you export, you create jobs. The more you export, and the better prices you get, the richer you become, the more jobs you create. The u. S. Wants to be in the Fastest Growing marketplace in the world. It wants to be where the action is and it should be where the customer is. The u. S. Needs to make it easy for others to buy its products, not to make it harder and less red tape and the less tax you have to pay on sales the more profit you make. This, in turn, creates more jobs. So, ladies and gentlemen, u. S. Leadership in the indopacific and beyond for peace and prosperity, not only for the people in the region, but for the millions of americans whose jobs and livelihood depend on the u. S. Growing trade with china, india, japan, korea, australia and others, maintaining the United States leadership in the region is an avenue for maintaining the prosperity of millions of americans. Australia will continue to forge broader and deeper economic partnerships with the countries of the indo pacific and continues to welcome u. S. Engagement in the region for the benefit of all. So for the sake of the United States we urge americans to heed the words of Woodrow Wilson which was uttered just down the road in early january of 1918 when he laid down the 14point plan for american prosperity into the 20th century, and of course, article 3, the removal of economic barriers and the support of free trade are the Guiding Light for american prosperity that had been in the 20th century and will continue to be in the 21st century. Thanks very much. [ applause ] all set . Well, i had all of these wonderful questions lined up and i spent the weekend studying your paper on Foreign Policy and laying out the next ten years and youve just blown through all of them in that speech there. So thanks very much. I wanted to pick up on you we have a little bit of feedback. Thats the stock market talking. Ooh, yeah. Maybe well why dont we start off with one of the points you made which was you laid out a really compelling case for some water jeegeez. A little bit of whisky, as well. Its karma, isnt it. You laid out an incredibly compelling case for the u. S. Joining the tpp and i think a couple of weeks ago we would have said that was even raising that prospect with the Current Administration we would have been treated like a bit of a fool, but at davos, things seemed to change a bit, didnt they . You had the comments where you opened the door to rejoining the tpp on better terms, as he put it. I wonder what you made of those comments and if you had any interaction with the administration since. The official is that the architecture is open and transparent and it accommodates anyone choosing to join. So if the british want to join tpp or the United States or anyone else theyre most welcome to be a part of it. The hard part is, you know, if youre joining a club its very hard to put in your application and ask to change the rules at the same time and thats sort of where its at with multilateral agreements even when youve got a massive economic powerhouse like the United States and it would be incredibly hard to ask 11 countries to go back to their parliaments or their congress and say, look, were going to give up these things so the United States can join. The first question will be from our good friends at the media, are we wonning out of this or is the United States winning . And its very hard to convince your own population and you are going to win if you are making sacrifices for another country for the Free Trade Agreement. There have been a number of provisions that have been suspended in the in the tpp 11 because the United States is not going, particularly around ists and a few other thing, but having said that, the door is always open. Is there going to be a cost for the u. S. To get back in . I hope not. I think there is a cost for the u. S. Not being in it, but if thaw want they want to get back in will you demand a cost . The tpp is facing standards for the humanity. We want protection of intellectual property and we want to have access to the fastestgrowing market in the world. We want to influence the thinking with our products and our services. We want to be able to grow our prosperity by going to a bigger market. If i was running a Small Business and you say you can have 10,000 people walk past your shop every day or you can have 1,000, i would say give me 10,000 and thats what tpp does. It gives you and it sets the rules and i think the rules should be based on the system of law and based on the trade protections that the United States and australia and japan really like and prosper under. There are better rules than having no rules. And theyre rules that the u. S. Helped negotiate with the previous administration. The you talked about the need for yeah, this is thats better. There we go. You talked about the need for u. S. Engagement. You talked about the tpp as a key tool for u. S. Engagement, if not the tpp, do you see a way the u. S. Can engage meaningfully in the indopacific in asia now or is it inevitably going to be doing so with one handy tied behind its back . No. The u. S. Is always going to be a force for greater good and its by far the best military in the world and its more than the countries combined. Its by far the biggest innovator in the world around 30 of all rnd dollars in the world are spent here in the United States and its the center of capital markets. 70 is the dollar components and above and beyond all of that there are probably about 150,000 dead american soldiers buried in the sand in the indopacific region. The u. S. Is never going to walk away from the region. The question is how much influence does it want to the have on the future of the region. How much again, ill come back to the business analogy. If youre running a business and you can influence the way your customers behave, give me that and thats effectively what the tpp does. It gives the United States a voice in influencing the attitudes and the practices of its biggest customers. There is a big section in the Foreign Policy white paper on australian values there and theres also a big section there talking about china and the u. S. And how do you balance the two . Youre talking about free values and no market values often portrays whats going on in the world today as a clash between different values. In australia, do you feel you value trade and commerce . No, our values dont change. As you can see in the post here. Were the only country on earth that have fought side by side with the United States in every single conflict, and were in vietnam, korea in iraq and were still in afghanistan and weve been there world war i, world war ii, the list goes on and thats not going to change because we share values and usually, you fight for values to protect values, freedom, democracy, enterprise, opportunity, community, family, the rule of law and the integ riddy of the leg rid, and there are things ingrained in our culture and our cultures and that wont change. The United States is by far the biggest investor in australia even though last year for the first time china passed the United States in a oneway flow of investment interest. China is by far our biggest trading partner. One is a customer, a very valued customer. Obviously, china is a very important customer to us and in many ways in many areas a partner, but the United States is our longstanding partner and our ally and thats not going to change. Can you talk us through the Prime Ministers visit later this month and what will be at the top of the agenda . The Prime Minister is coming to washington and will be meeting with President Trump. Theyll obviously be talking about trade and investment, infi infrastructure and the intelligence relationship which is very deep and our military relationship, we have military personnel in 35 u. S. States. We spend 20 million a day buying military equipment here in the u. S. And we are with britain, arguably, were the closest intelligence partner of the United States so were around different areas, particularly through five, so its a very, very deep and sophisticated relationship, but also the we are partnering with the National Governors association and we have the most significant delegation coming ever to the United States to washington, d. C. And we are partnering right here and down the road with the ngo and all of the governors and weve got all of our premiers coming along, as well and 20 leading Business Ceos from australia and 20 leading ceos from the United States. Great. Id like to open it up to the floor since weve got an eminent audience here. If you would put your hand up if youve got a question. The rules are please identify yourselves, your affiliation and to ask your question in the form of a question. Anything you want. All of the way in the back of the room. Lets get the mike to the back of the room. And then [ inaudible question ] i wanted to ask about tpp 11. I know the goal is to have that signed by march in chile. Are there discretions about delaying that in bringing the u. S. Back to the fold and two, what would the process look like . [ inaudible question ] in relation to the first question, no, there is no suggestion of the like. In relation to the second question, that would be a matter for negotiation about whether the suspended provisions would continue to apply. Different countries would have different requirements according to the demands of their own congresses. Any other questions out there . Theres one over here. The mikes coming to you, if you can stand up. [ inaudible question ] the u. S. China dynamic, i wonder if you could comment more specifically on President Trumps approach since hes conducting property and maybe this would result in trade sanctions and maybe china does need to do more to open up its economy and the approach or hes quoting retaliation and a trade war. Its not for me to pass comment on the president of the United States. Hes doing what he believes to be right for the american people, and frankly, thats what he campaigned for and hes right to do so. You know, each country has its own approach to dealing with china and thats because we all have different relationships with china. The fundamental point is that there is no doubt that President Trump made a particular point about is that there has been unlawful stealing of property by china by individuals in china and its no different, in a sense to, you know, any massive economy. You know, i often think when i travel around the United States, every single state and sometimes every single county is a different country. Australia is much the same so when i go to an airport in the United States i see a sea of people whether its an airport in phoenix or charlotte, and oh, my god you have a lot of people here and you have 15 times the population of australia. China has five times the population of the United States and the cultural differences in china are barely understood by westerners and how diverse and possibly very hard to manage the interests across china. I kid you not, when i was treasurer, i was in discussion with chinas officials about the fact that one province in china had slapped tariffs on our warrants, beijing was horrified. They didnt even know and they told me how much they loved australian water and they didnt know. And there is this basic assumption that beijing knows everything and thats what they pretend to the world about whats happening in china, but they dont. So its an incredibly diverse nation. Having said that, its all the more reason to join these multilateral agreements like the tpp 11 so that you set the benchmarks and the standards that need to be set for not just the country, but the region and the point which is lost which i continually make is that often countries will use International Agreements as a way to drive economic productivity gains in their own economy and nothing illustrates it better than vietnam which probably sacrificed more in the tpp negotiations than other country and they know that because they are desperate to deliver domestic reform that makes them competitive, and lifts the Living Standards to their people and, you know, they are desperate to side with the United States, litticly, strategically, they want to be friends and close to the United States and sometimes trade agreements have a much, much bigger role than simply being about a trade imbalance or about getting access to a particular market. Have you detect good change in the tone over at the white house or in the conversations that youre having there . I think a year ago when the administration came in they were pulling out of the tpp and they were ripping stuff up. Has that evolved . Have things changed . Sure because you know, i was a minister for 13 years and every time i got into a new job by the Prime Minister i used to say to my Public Servants and all wisdom and knowledge doesnt come through the new office. In some cases i knew nothing about the portfolio and we have something called question time which is sobering because immediately you walk into the parliament and you are expected to be an expert on every single issue so you have to get up to speed very quickly. I, you know, i cut any new administration some slack when they come in fresh because all of the wisdom and knowledge doesnt necessarily happen and thats the history of transition here in the United States. I mean, you know, im constantly trying to put aside biases and partisanship and its too easy to become a comment traator on washington politics. I think its a bad slip street, and if you can just try to remain objective then you wont lose sight of the fact that sometimes mistakes are made. Sometimes there are misjudgments, but i think there is an incredible capacity to change course for the best interests of the nation and i think the white house has displayed that. Do you think theyre changing course on trade . I think theyre becoming more, you know, some people are becoming more aware of some of the dangers of immediately ripping up agreements and that, look, you know, trade agreements are about, as i said, maintaining just simply maintaining your growth. When i you know, i got so frustrated, when we when i became treasurer we decided we had to make really hard decisions and one of them was that we couldnt keep paying what i call welfare to business, subsidies to business and that covered not just the auto industry, but a whole range of other indy strees. How can you reduce the welfare for pensioners or disadvantaged people in the community and still hand out money to businesses. I couldnt have that stick up. So that meant that, you know, was there a change in the australian economy. A lot of it was pushed from overseas and we had no control of it like the automakers and they decided to leave australia and they would basically leave it and there was no scale for them, but other areas, you know, it was very hard and that opened up an opportunity to open up a Free Trade Agreement with korea and korea had a lot of car parts and cars coming in to australia and there were tariffs. They said now that youre not providing subsidies are fot industry, we can get serious about a Free Trade Agreement. There are real benefits for australia and you know, i lost the tariff revenue. And was my budget worse off, but you keep telling me this is a great thing. And i said, because it is, you know, it is about keeping our head above the water. If we dont become competitive, we start to sink. So it is about, not about what you gain, it is about what you may lose if you dont do it. And as soon as korea signed up, japan came to us after a decade of negotiations and said, hang on, you just signed with korea, how about signing with us. We said, well, lets talk. And to his great credit, shinzo abe and asa were prepared to make deals. Then after years of trading, they said, after years of signing with korea and japan, you better sign with us. What does that mean . Well we will abolish, for example, the tariffs on u. S. Wine exports to china. For us, they are zero. By can now bb open up hospitals in china without having to have joint venture partners. Our services represent 70 of our economy. That represent only a fraction of our exports. So we see the Fastest Growing middle class in the world as an opportunity for education, tourism, you know, health services. Financial advice. Banking services. Et cetera, et cetera. Things that we have previously focused on the economy we can now export into our region and great advantage is were in the same time zone. I feel like at some point we should talk about the super bowl and the ad, at some point. My kids were incredibly disappointed there wouldnt be a crocodile dundee ii. But well done on one of the best stats. Lets go back to the floor if there is any more questions. Second row right here. Then we will come over. Nice to see you. With the [ inaudible ] is there interest in the 11 countries and expanding agreement and the near term and if so, with whom, and does that now get back to being a pathway for at some point in the future . I think its been a long negotiation to get to where we are. Not suggesting you shouldnt be ambitious. But there are a number of other countries that have expressed interest and in ttp, such as korea. Potentially indonesia. And a number of others. And even i think even we might have heard the hint from china that they might join at some point. And so, i think that you know, the starting point is to stabilize and get it under way. And ill state the real benefits of being part of that and Welcome New Members to join. And britain, britain said they go up. And most of you hang on, last time i looked, britain wasnt in the indio pacific. And they have been there quite a bit in the past. But also, bear this in mind, i was very involved in the establishment of the Asian Investment bank and we were dragging at the time in joining that until we got certain commitments from our good friends in china. But out of the blue, britain said were joining. Which certainly upped the wattage on us and that changed the nature of it, but it is still the investment bank. We first need to show the benefits of it and bear in mind youve still got asset negotiations going on in the background. They are meant to conclude this year. They were meant to conclude kwlaefrt, i think. Yeah. Back to the floor. A question right, the woman in the middle there. [ inaudible ] the ones, the individual ftas we have signed, for example in the tpp, there is a ratchet clause that allows us to have a deal better than what we have with the Australia Japan Free Trade Agreement. The Australia Japan Free Trade Agreement, their tariffs on our beef, and from 38 to 15 , under tpp, they go down to 9. So terrific. In relation to china, i found that the main thing with china is they want to know what the rules of the game are. And then youve got to prosecute those rules. As treasurer, i ordered the now wealthiest man in china to divest his home in sydney. We have the Foreign Investment rule that says if youre a foreign citizen youre not allowed to buy. Existing real estate. In australia. And Residential Real Estate in australia. Can you buy new Residential Real Estate, apartments or a new house that investment creates jobs that go into the construction. But youre not allowed to buy existing real estate. He purchased existing real estate. He brought the law and had to sell the property within a few weeks. And i was waiting for my friends in china to say, thats a bit much. But they did. And why . Because that was the first treasurer to allow them to invest in stateowned infrastructure. And they started to invest in our infrastructure. They invest in our infrastructure. Where we deem that there was no conflict with our national interest. Now, as long as the rules are there, then i think that the thing that works best with china is to enforce the rules. And if they are breaking the rules, then you take them to the wto, or you take them to the independent arbiter. But if there is intellectual sanctions against them, then it becomes an issue of face and sometimes you dont get the best result out of that one. I will go back to the floor for one last round of questions. Im going to take three as a closing round, if we will. We had the middle of the room, front of the room, and is there one on that side for balance and then, we will take four. Take gentleman here and then in the back. Keep them quick, yeah. [ inaudible ] why do you think President Trump changed his status . The front here, just quickly if we can just i will prompt you on this one, yeah. A question regarding ttp and multilaterals in general, as someone who is knowledgeable [ inaudible ] when is there a role in the world [ inaudible ] okay. Then in the second row here. Quickly. Then to the back. Dont worry. Ill remember these for you. Just right here if you put your hand up quickly. The microphone is coming. And in the back there. Right there. Last question. Its coming. Its coming. This is all in the name of getting us to drinks right on time. As i understand it, President Trump said he would be willing to consider ttp if he can get a better deal. So maybe if u. S. Seems to reenter the tpp, there would be significant changes possibly unconventional in nafta, what will be the reaction to the ttp 11 and entering discussions with u. S. Under those conditions . Thank you. It comes down to sugar at end, doesnt it . So, look, you have ttp. Ttp, what changed his mind and what are you going to make of the search for a better deal . Well, okay, lets go through one more. You know, it was the democrats never supported tpp. You add democrat president. Its been like president clinton. The president supported tpp but the vast number did not. And i remember when i first came here and i was meeting with the democrats, im going, come on. This is great. And the movement has a strong view. Thinks that free trade is bad for them and they lose control of their marketplace. And i understand those anxieties. But there was a constant reliance on the republicans. And a feeling that i could take immediately that those responsible for free trade have failed to sell it and to sell the benefits of free trade to the workers and you know, there is a terrific statistics that i often wheel out. China lost 19 Million Manufacturing jobs between 19 t95 and 2005. China lost 19 Million Manufacturing jobs. Some went to cheaper venues. Louse, cambodia, vietnam, whatever the case may be. Digital economy. They all have an impact. And job losses in america particularly in the midwest, are linked to free trade. No one has bothered to explain. Theres an assumption that everyone knows free trade is good. No, thats not right. When youve lost your job and when your town lost its major manufacturing base, actually, youre not up for a discussion about it. You want to know where the next job is coming from. So i have some sympathy for the debate that it means Everyone Needs to be there explaining what the benefits are. More importantly, what is the cost of new protection . So thats the first one. Yes. Skip, skip, skip to the last one quickly. And that is, that question of are you going to, you know, President Trump has said he would like to look at ttp but itll be on better terms for the u. S. No one will rule it out because it is the United States of america. And we want the United States of america and tpp. We really do. And last i saw, majority of americans want free trade. And American Business wants cheaper free access. Youre a sugar farm. Or associated with sugar farmers. You should be jumping up and down calling for this. Because the United States is a great producer of great sugar. What you want it the great price for your sugar. If youre richer, you can spend more money here in the United States to employ more people and create greater prosperity. Thats why free trade matters. Thats why you benefit from free trade. Thats a good note to end on. Ken . Thank you. A round of applause for shawn. [ applause ] thank you very, very much. Few instructions. We are segueing to the annual Members Meeting and reception and we ask you to clear out from the seating area very quickly to the sides. Over to the bar area over here in particular so we can clear out tables and chairs and set up for the reception. Thank you very much
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