WASHINGTON – The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice for the tech sector, issued the following statement from Vince Jesaitis, vice president for government affairs, after the Senate voted to approve trade promotion authority (TPA) by passing H.R. 2146, the Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. The vote cleared the bill for the President’s signature into law.

“Today, the Senate did its part to help grow the economy by passing TPA. The tech sector is a major driver of our country’s economic growth through exports in hardware, software, services, and increasingly in digital and Internet enabled platforms. TPA can help future trade agreements reflect the important role that digital trade plays in our economy to help our tech goods and services compete more fairly overseas. We thank the senators on both sides of the aisle who voted in favor of this important legislation and look forward to President Obama signing the bill into law."

“We also look forward to Trade Adjustment Assistance, as well as the other legislative components of this debate, reaching the president’s desk and becoming law. Trade is always a hotly debated topic, but Congress found a bipartisan consensus to move forward. We hope that same spirit will continue for lawmakers to work together on many of the issues that have been stymied—but are key—to sparking U.S. innovation and competitiveness.”

ITI sent a letter to Senators ahead of the vote citing the legislation as a key vote for the tech sector. Passing TPA has been a top legislative priority for ITI to boost U.S. trade in technology goods and services.

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