Outdoor Industry Association joined more than a dozen industry executives from the Pacific Northwest and several members of the Washington State Congressional delegation this past Monday for a roundtable conversation with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on the benefits of outdoor recreation and international trade in generating economic growth and supporting jobs in the outdoor industry and U.S. economy.
ADVERTISEMENT “The roundtable with Secretary Jewell was an opportunity for the outdoor industry and members of Congress to learn more about the significant investments the proposed 2016 Interior Department budget makes in the outdoor recreation economy,” said Steve Barker, Executive Director of Outdoor Industry Association. “We also discussed President Obama’s trade agenda, including the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the tremendous benefits the outdoor industry would see from the TPP, including better market access to the Asia-Pacific region for outdoor products and the strongest labor and environment standards of any U.S. trade agreement.”
Secretary Jewell also discussed the $13.2 billion investment in the President’s FY2016 budget proposal for all activities supported by the Department of the Interior, including for our national parks and public lands places special to our nation that also boost local economies. According to the most recent U.S. Department of the Interior Economic Report, public lands managed by Interior hosted an estimated 407 million recreation visits in 2013, which contributed about $25 billion in value added, $41 billion in economic output, and supported about 355,400 jobs.
Secretary Jewell emphasized the importance of Congress enacting Trade Promotion Authority in order to give the Obama Administration the ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries that will strengthen the economy, establish trade rules that support American jobs, and encourage the protection of the environment and wildlife.
“Trade is an integral part of our economy, and the Obama Administration is working to set strong environmental standards through trade agreements so that commitments are fully enforceable and on equal footing with commercial obligations,” said Secretary Jewell. “More than 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside our borders and, by 2030, it is expected that there will be more than 3 billion middle class consumers in Asia alone. We can’t afford to let the opportunity to open these growing markets to American products pass us by.”
Jewell emphasized that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement that President Obama is negotiating with countries in the Asia-Pacific region is a new kind of trade deal that will support U.S. jobs by opening up those markets to exports and making countries abide by fair wage and environmental standards if they want to send their goods to the United States.
