[CTC] After Wednesday committee vote, Senate likely to confirm Tai next week

Wed Mar 3 06:50:31 PST 2021

After Wednesday committee vote, Senate likely to confirm Tai next week
By Isabelle Icso, Inside US Trade
3/2/2021
The full Senate likely will vote to approve Katherine Tai, President Biden’s choice for U.S. Trade Representative, next week, according to several sources tracking the process. 
The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday will vote on whether to confirm Tai <https://insidetrade.com/node/170770>, who testified before the panel late last week. Tai will then need approval from the full Senate before taking office.  
Several sources said they believed that vote would be scheduled for next week. Tai is expected to be easily confirmed. 
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), at the conclusion of the Feb. 25 confirmation hearing, said he expected Tai to be easily approved by the panel. 
“I've enjoyed my time in public service but I think one of the most enjoyable moments to come will be to go out on the floor of the United States Senate after you get a resounding vote of approval in this committee … and we can -- in effect -- present your nomination to the whole Senate. I look forward to that day very much,” he told Tai .  
In responses to questions for the record <https://insidetrade.com/node/170765> following her confirmation hearing, Tai outlined an agenda for her first 100 days in office, during which she said she plans to “engage with our trading partners on ways to address the climate crisis, bolster sustainable renewable energy supply chains, and end unfair trade practices.” 
“In addition, in my first 100 days I will review existing trade policies and agreements and pursue enforcement actions when warranted,” she continued.  
In addition to Tai, the Finance Committee on Wednesday will vote on the nomination of Wally Adeyemo for deputy Treasury secretary.
The Senate on Tuesday voted 84-15 to confirm <https://insidetrade.com/node/170780> Gina Raimondo as Biden’s Commerce secretary.

Tai to give Congress ideas about trade transparency soon after taking office
By Dan Dupont, Inside US Trade
3/2/2021
Katherine Tai, President Biden’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, last week told the Senate Finance Committee she would provide her ideas on how to improve transparency in trade policy-making within 30 days of taking office.
The committee will vote on her nomination on Wednesday, with a full Senate vote not yet scheduled.
During her Feb. 25 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Tai faced several questions about transparency in trade negotiations. Many Democratic lawmakers, and some Republicans, complained repeatedly during the Trump administration about a lack of transparency for the public in trade dealings, as well as a lack of consultations with Congress.
Tai promised both greater transparency and an early check-in with the panel about her ideas for the “next steps” the agency could take.
The panel’s chairman, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), cited conversations with voters in his home state about trade in saying “people, I believe, just feel in the dark and sort of almost feel out of control. You know, the world has shrunk as a result of modern communications and modern transportation, and people hear all about these trade agreements and say … ‘I got to know more about what this means,’ and that's part of the transparency debate.”
“For years in the discussion of trade, people would say, ‘Ron, I don't know anything about this,” he added. “I've been reading and I can't figure out kind of what this is all about.’”
Alluding to Trade Promotion Authority requirements to make the text of trade deals public before they are ratified, Wyden said “I think so much more needs to be done to open this process up.”
Accordingly, he asked Tai if “within, say, 30 days of your taking office” she would offer the committee her “ideas for the next steps” on transparency.
“I would be happy to,” Tai said.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) told Tai that “After the last four years, it's clear that we need more transparency in our trade policy-making.” Menendez also asked Tai her thoughts on the establishment of an inspector general at USTR, which he has long advocated.
“I am very supportive of accountability and transparency, in particular with respect to Congress,” Tai responded. “I know that there is no inspector general apparatus set up for the Executive Office of the President agencies. I'm not aware of the specific legalities around that. But with respect to your desire for more transparency and accountability, I'm very supportive of that.”
Tai offered similar comments in response to questions from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who asked “about what the public is allowed to see before trade deals are enacted. After corporate executives and lobbyists are done shaping the terms of an agreement, Congress is usually asked to fast-track it, you know -- greasing the skids so that that agreement can pass with a simple up-or-down vote, no ability to make changes on it,” Warren said. “But the public doesn't actually know what their representatives are fast-tracking because they never got to see the agreement; it's secret.”
Warren, contending that secrecy in trade negotiations kept “workers and families” from learning “how corporations may have thrown them under the bus until after Congress has already tied its hands and given up some of its ability to fix the agreement,” pushed for more transparency.
“Can you commit to releasing the draft bracketed text of any trade agreement under negotiation at least two months before Congress is asked to fast-track it?” she asked. “Give us a chance to read it?”
The final text of the two trade agreements U.S. administrations have completed during Warren’s tenure in the Senate were made public well before the 60-day timeline the senator proposed. The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership was released in November 2015. The Obama administration never formally submitted the deal to Congress for approval amid lagging support. The Trump administration published the text of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement in October 2018. Congress passed USMCA in December 2019, after House Democrats negotiated changes to it.
Under the 2015 TPA law, the administration is required to make the text of a trade agreement public at least 60 days before the signing of a deal. The final text of an agreement must also be submitted to Congress at least 30 days before the deal is introduced to Congress for approval.
In response to Warren, Tai said “I want to make clear to you how important the principles that you articulating here with respect to those that advise our trade negotiators, and with respect to making the results of trade negotiations available to the public. So I want to start from there.”
Tai also said she would “go a step further and to let you know that this interest in transparency and connecting with the American people directly on our trade policies in my mind goes beyond what we do in the context of negotiating large trade agreements,” adding that “I very much hope if confirmed to bring these principles to the conduct of U.S. trade policy on a day-to-day basis.”
Warren, however, made clear she wanted more. “Well, I very much appreciate that you want to engage with the American people on this but what I'm really looking for here is a hard commitment,” she said. “You know, to me this is another place where the administration needs to take a hard line. Trade negotiations must be open and transparent to the public. And without that commitment, you're denying Americans the ability to know if what is being negotiated on their behalf actually benefits them because they don't get any real input into the process.”
Tai is expected to pass both the Finance Committee and the full Senate with overwhelming support. House Ways & Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady (R-TX), in introducing Tai at the hearing, praised her work as chief trade counsel for the panel’s Democrats and said “she understands that the core of that partnership is transparency and thorough consultation with members of Congress and their staffs. I'm confident she'll work with us to develop a bipartisan consensus on trade policy before taking action.”

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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