[CTC] Lawmakers divided on whether Ross, Navarro could – or should – trigger NAFTA talks

[Arthur Stamoulis]

INSIDE US TRADE
 
Lawmakers divided on whether Ross, Navarro could – or should – trigger NAFTA talks
February 28, 2017
While members of the Senate Finance and the House Ways & Means committees are eager to move forward with the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, they emphasized this week that recent meetings with White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro did not shed enough light on the administration's negotiating objectives -- which must be outlined before a 90-day congressional consultation process can begin.

The president is required to outline objectives for NAFTA renegotiations when he triggers that consultation period with the committees of jurisdiction, which he must do before NAFTA negotiations can officially begin.

President Trump's Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, was confirmed on Feb. 27 with broad bipartisan support. Trump has said Ross will play a key role in shaping U.S. trade policy and represent the U.S. during NAFTA talks. Ross, during his confirmation hearing, said NAFTA will be a very early priority for the administration <https://insidetrade.com/node/157223>.

But lawmakers on the committees with jurisdiction over trade policy have raised questions about how soon the Trump administration could and should initiate the renegotiation process, and whether Ross – instead of the U.S. Trade Representative – could take the lead. Robert Lighthizer, Trump's pick for USTR, has yet to have a confirmation hearing, much less a vote on his nomination.

Ways & Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) would not say whether he believes NAFTA talks could start with Ross in place, but instead said he is “excited” to have Ross confirmed, “and I think as the broader Trump economic team and trade team comes together, you're going to see an acceleration of those discussions. I'm eager for the U.S. Trade Representative to be confirmed.”

Asked whether he believes the administration would soon notify Congress of its intent to renegotiate NAFTA – even without having Lighthizer in place – Brady said “you'll have to ask the White House about that. We're having discussions with them as we did a meeting two weeks ago about their moving the trade agenda forward.”

Pressed on whether he thinks the meeting with Navarro checked a box for consultations under the Trade Promotion Authority law, Brady told Inside U.S. Trade “Well these aren't check-the-box processes; it's actually having good, solid consultation, exchange of views with members.”

“And I know more of those meetings are going to be scheduled in the future, so yeah, the White House and Congress is serious about following the new trade rules that are in place,” he added.

Senate Finance Committee member Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Inside U.S. Trade he addressed the issue during a recent meeting with Navarro <https://insidetrade.com/node/157591>.

"They brought Navarro to the Finance Committee and I asked if the administration considered that the consultation,” Brown said – but, he added, the answer was "unclear."

"I suppose" Ross could get the renegotiation started, Brown said, adding that he doesn't think the administration has yet figured out how it will approach the talks.

"It's got to be Ross until they get a USTR," Brown said, but "their slowness and incompleteness and incompetence lead me to believe they don't really know yet."

Brown said he's more concerned about substance than process, but stressed the administration has to follow the legal requirements for launching a renegotiation. He said his reading of the law is that the USTR should notify Congress of the renegotiation.

The 2015 Trade Promotion Authority law lays out the statutory rules and time lines for the negotiation of trade agreements. Section 5(a)(1) says the president “shall provide, at least 90 calendar days before initiating negotiations with a country, written notice to Congress of the President’s intention to enter into the negotiations with that country and set forth in the notice the date on which the President intends to initiate those negotiations, the specific United States objectives for the negotiations with that country, and whether the President intends to seek an agreement, or changes to an existing agreement.”

It also says the president shall, “before and after submission of the notice, consult regarding the negotiations” with the committees of jurisdiction as well as the advisory groups on negotiations.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said she is “not sure how the Trump administration wants to do it,” adding, “I think it'd be difficult without the USTR in place. It'll be interesting to see how they approach this.”

Stabenow said she did not consider the Navarro meeting a sufficient consultation on the administration's objectives for NAFTA. “It was an interesting conversation but I mean they were just getting started; they really didn't have a lot of information. It was an interesting conversation but they are very new,” she said.

Asked whether she believes it is too early for the administration to send the written notification, Stabenow said “I don't know, yeah. I definitely need more information.”

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said he does not know whether NAFTA talks can be kicked off without a USTR in place. When asked if the Navarro meeting could be characterized as a pre-consultation before those talks, Toomey declined to answer in detail. "I didn't say that; you said that," he told Inside U.S. Trade.

Toomey added that his position on beginning a NAFTA renegotiation soon “depends on what they were trying to accomplish.”

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), however, said "yes, we can start” NAFTA talks with Ross in place, “but we do need the USTR."

On the Navarro meeting, Crapo said he doesn't know "that anyone was intending that that be a NAFTA process,” adding that he doesn't have any information on the time line or process for the renegotiation.

Ways & Means Committee member Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), meanwhile, said “I think we probably need a USTR,” and added that he is “anxious to see more details of what the administration … of what exactly are their plans.”

“By definition, Commerce is big; it's a broad scope. As it relates to trade, USTR, they are the experts, so I would think it would be important” to have them involved, Smith said. “I think there's just more information, more details needed moving forward.”

Sources pointed out that the law does not require that USTR be involved in the consultations, which means the administration could legally notify Congress at any point. Those sources said Trump could task anyone he wishes to conduct such consultations because the USTR does not officially get involved until the negotiations start.

TPA requires that the president, “at least 30 calendar days before initiating negotiations with a country,” publish on the USTR website “a detailed and comprehensive summary of the specific objectives with respect to the negotiations, and a description of how the agreement, if successfully concluded, will further those objectives and benefit the United States.”

Sources said the objectives outlined in the summary are usually agreed upon in consultations with the committees, and one source said that because of the detailed nature of the individual chapters, usually “only USTR staff is equipped” to outline them.

Matt Gold, former deputy assistant USTR for North America, told Inside U.S. Trade he believes the Trump team is hesitating to notify Congress because it is difficult to lay out the specific U.S. objectives for NAFTA talks required in the notice.

“Everything they could possibly come up with is something they either won't get, or something that won't bring back the promised jobs,” Gold said. “They are setting themselves up for embarrassing results.”

Another source said it would be “tricky” if the administration submitted the notification and 60 days later had to make publicly available detailed objectives, because Navarro and Ross have not yet familiarized themselves with the key issues.

Smith described the meeting with Navarro as “a general meeting” that did not focus much on NAFTA. But, he added, “as I recall the meeting, there were several of us who spoke up on behalf of agriculture. Being a part of NAFTA, we've seen a lot of successes for agriculture. So we wanna see that moving forward.”

That sentiment – describing a more general, introductory meeting – was echoed by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who told Inside U.S. Trade he is “not sure exactly what the legal trigger is” for starting negotiations but thought the sit-down with Navarro “was just an opportunity for us to hear from the administration on kind of what their trade priorities are.”

He said he doesn't know if it was “a check-the-box exercise,” but added it “may have been in terms of the consultation requirements.”

“It wasn't like 'we're coming up here to consult you because we have to.' No, I think it was a genuine attempt at outreach and to just make sure that they are maintaining a relationship with Capitol Hill on these trade issues, which ultimately we have to ratify – any trade agreement, any change is gonna have to come through Congress,” Thune said.

“I think Wilbur Ross and other members of the administration all have a piece of the trade portfolio and I think that they'll figure out how to get the process moving forward, but I guess my suggestion would be let's get the USTR in place as quickly as possible,” he added. – Jenny Leonard (jleonard at iwpnews.com <mailto:jleonard at iwpnews.com>)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20170301/984d0a2c/attachment.htm>