[CTC] Wyden Dissatisfied with Admin Response on IPEF Process

[Arthur Stamoulis]

BY  GAVIN BADE <>
With help from Steven Overly and Doug Palmer

— The head of the Senate Finance Committee is not impressed with the Biden administration’s new legal justification for its new economic partnerships like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

WYDEN DISSATISFIED WITH ADMIN RESPONSE: Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1b841e9bf3ded1bb49a3dc4df3a71c2abf680a461a8e6bac0c4a305486cb6be7afb0f68ab4ecedc781aaecc96213bc3f> (D-Ore.) isn’t keen on the letter he received last week <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1b841e9bf3ded1bb9c9d0211213741352998e2321a1697ff6b7a9bea013bda8a796e26650d1dd2a460936199902f82cd> from Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, which arrived in response to concerns committee members raised six months earlier about the administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

“We asked the administration to work with Congress to arrive at a common understanding of how agreements like the IPEF will be approved,” Wyden said in a statement. “This letter neither recognizes Congress’s Constitutional authority, nor attempts to achieve a common understanding on how to move an agreement like the IPEF forward.”

That’s been a sore spot for Congress throughout the Biden administration. USTR and Commerce have shunned traditional free trade agreements in favor of executive-level frameworks and arrangements — and have determined such deals do not need to go before lawmakers for a vote.

Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed frustration that their constitutional powers over trade are being undercut as a result, though it’s not clear lawmakers have the ability or the political will to take any action. (The top Republican on Senate Finance, Mike Crapo <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1b841e9bf3ded1bbad17920ede693834d73e481633aab69d13f5a67735f4a5f2ca360021f7ec5f2c4b59beb535b6062a>(R-Idaho), declined to comment on the latest letter.)

In the letter last week, Raimondo and Tai defended their legal authority to negotiate deals like IPEF without having to bring them before Congress. But they also committed to sharing negotiating text with lawmakers and providing more detailed briefings, two longstanding complaints from the Hill <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1b841e9bf3ded1bbf49e84b2447680c00e793e2144f81224fe455f444b40f519627be1a2c659b3cf0229480a9d229a4b>.


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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