[CTC] Mexico Will Ask To Join US-EU Transatlantic Trade Agreement

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/congress-wants-its-voice-heard-as-obama-pushes-ambitious-trade-agenda/2013/03/11/2a3f7796-8a24-11e2-a88e-461ffa2e34e4_story.html

Congress wants its voice heard as Obama pushes ambitious trade agenda
By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, March 11, 1:17 AM

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has embarked on an aggressive  
trade agenda that could lower barriers and increase U.S. exports to  
many of the economic giants of Asia and Europe. To make that a  
reality, though, it may first have to negotiate future trade policy a  
little closer to home — with Congress.

The administration hopes to complete talks by October on the Trans- 
Pacific Partnership, which would reduce duties on a wide range of  
goods and services in the world’s most vibrant trading area. Eleven  
countries, including Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico and  
Canada, are participating, and Japan has expressed interest in joining.

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced  
plans for a second deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment  
Partnership, which would link the United States and the European  
Union, the world’s two largest economies.

Departing U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk added to the agenda in  
January when he notified Congress of plans to start negotiations for a  
new trade agreement on international trade in services. The talks will  
include a group of 20 trading partners representing nearly two-thirds  
of global trade in services.

Obama has set a goal of doubling exports by the end of next year,  
after drawing criticism from free-trade advocates during his first  
term for moving too slowly on trade issues.

“The Obama administration suddenly has this highly ambitious trade  
agenda that they’ve laid out,” said John Murphy, vice president for  
international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Now the  
challenge is going to be executing.”

First, Obama must nominate a successor to Kirk, who in January  
announced plans to step down. Then, he has to work with lawmakers to  
restore a procedure called trade promotion authority that is regarded  
as key to getting trade treaties finalized and approved by Congress.

TPA, also known as “fast track,” has a history going back to the 1930s  
and was formalized in a 1974 trade law. Under TPA, Congress and the  
White House agree on the objectives of trade negotiations, and  
Congress affirms that it will vote on any trade treaty without  
offering amendments that would force the administration to go back to  
the negotiating table.

The last TPA law expired in 2007, and up to now, the Obama White House  
hasn’t pushed for its renewal. Without TPA on the books, trade  
partners are reluctant to sign off on deals that could later be amended.

That could be fatal to some complex trade deals, such as the future  
talks with the EU where success hinges on reaching delicate  
compromises on such issues as European agriculture subsidies and  
Europe’s restrictions on genetically engineered crops.

A strong trade agenda, said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top  
Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, requires close cooperation  
and consultation with Congress, and “trade promotion authority is the  
linchpin that brings these elements together.”

Members of Obama’s Democratic Party tend to oppose TPA, arguing that  
trade pacts negotiated by past administrations have resulted in job  
losses in America and given short shrift to environmental and labor  
and human rights issues. The last TPA law was passed in 2002 by the  
slimmest of margins, with House votes of 215-214 and 215-212.

More than 300 labor and environmental groups, in a letter last week  
opposing the Trans-Pacific talks, said no TPA legislation should be  
considered without a thorough assessment of how a trade deal will  
affect job creation, environmental and labor rights, food sovereignty,  
access to medicine and other issues.

The administration is coming off a good two years on trade. In 2011,  
it succeeded in getting Congress to approve three bilateral free trade  
agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama and extend a law that  
helps workers hurt by foreign competition. Last December, Congress  
sent the president legislation that removed Cold War restrictions  
standing in the way of permanent normal trade relations with Russia.

The three free trade bills, negotiated by the George W. Bush  
administration and reworked after Obama took office, were all covered  
by the TPA law in effect before 2007.

The administration, in its trade policy agenda report released last  
week, pledged to work with Congress on TPA “to facilitate the  
conclusion, approval and implementation of market-opening negotiating  
efforts.”

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., who oversees trade policy as chairman of the  
House Ways and Means Committee, said he was disappointed the  
administration has not engaged with Congress on TPA and urged Obama to  
both nominate a qualified trade representative and immediately begin  
discussions on renewing the fast track law.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., joined Hatch in  
a letter to Kirk that welcomed the US-EU talks and said they “intend  
to intensify efforts to ensure prompt consideration and renewal of  
trade promotion authority.”

“It is our hope and expectation that the administration will join us  
in these efforts,” they wrote.


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