Emergent Trade Issues Require Expeditious TPA Passage, Says Industry
Lawmakers should pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation this year in order to reinforce the Congressional-Executive Branch partnership, enable U.S. public and private officials to tackle emergent trade issues, and confront ongoing trade pact negotiations, said a group of trade associations in a Sept. 9 letter (here). The letter was addressed to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Finance Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah., House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin, D-Mich. The letter said the U.S. trade community faces new challenges since the crafting of the last TPA in 2002, an authority that expired in 2007. Congress and the administration need TPA to close high profile, docketed trade pacts, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, it said.
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“These negotiations involve important 21st century trade issues -- such as foreign restrictions on cross-border data flows, unfair competition from state-owned enterprises, intellectual property rights, forced localization barriers to trade and investment, and international regulatory cooperation -- that have evolved or emerged since 2002,” said the group. “By updating and passing TPA, Congress can help shape the negotiating goals pursued by U.S. negotiators while also strengthening the hand of those negotiators in achieving solid outcomes favorable to the United States.”
Those associations signing the letter include American Farm Bureau Federation, Business Roundtable, Coalition of Services Industries, Emergency Committee for American Trade, National Association of Manufacturers, National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Council for International Business. In the letter, the association officials also said Congress has delivered TPA to each president from the 1930s to 2007. The drive to conclude TPP negotiations by the end of the year propel TPA passage, said NFTC President Bill Reinsch on Sept. 6 during a roundtable discussion with reporters. Reinsch also argued the possibility that TPP leaders will cement the deal on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in October. Ambassador Froman recently called the summit, slated to be held in Bali, a significant “milestone.” The House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees did not comment.
The NFTC optimism that a TPP deal will be minted in 2013 “leads directly into TPA and our belief that once TPP is concluded, nobody wants to take it up without protection from the fast track process,” said Reinsch. “That necessitates a scenario where TPA has to come first and then TPP is taken up.” Reinsch previously said TPA may also provide the vehicle for some outstanding trade laws, including the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences (see 13081212).
The current expectation on Capitol Hill is that the “Big 4” lawmakers, those chairmen and ranking members addressed in the Sept. 9 letter, will present bipartisan, bicameral, administration-supported legislation, in a TPA “Plan A” scenario, Reinsch said. Reinsch considers that scenario is unlikely and that the odds are in favor of a “Plan B," that would involve separate legislation but ultimate consensus. “We don’t see the ‘Big 4’ process moving fast enough currently to get this thing to the finish line. And so that leads us to suspect that we may end up, not immediately, but we may end up with ‘Plan B.’ Nobody will admit to having a ‘Plan B’ … everybody is still fixated on having a ‘Plan A.’”
There remains some outstanding, sensitive negotiation points in TPP negotiations, including a wide range of market access issues (see 13082011). Despite skepticism, however, TPP leaders are narrowing in on negotiation conclusions by the end of this year, said Charles Dittrich, NFTC vice president-regional trade initiatives, at the Sept. 6 NFTC roundtable. “I would argue and say that we really are in full swing in the end game. The chief negotiators and ministers are fully engaged,” said Dittrich. “We have accomplished what needed to be done, which was move away from the technical negotiations…Now mostly what is on the table is political decisions.”