Congress Must Pass TPA to Address Emerging Issues, Says LA Times Editorial
The emerging trade issues the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will inevitably address should encourage all lawmakers to embrace Trade Promotion Authority legislation, said a Los Angeles Times editorial published on Jan. 26. The administration is floating positive proposals in both negotiations, but there continues to be room for improvement, said the editorial. “If Congress wants these treaties to be more to its liking, lawmakers need to stop dithering and give the president a new set of marching orders on trade,” said the editorial.
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The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 (here), introduced on Jan. 9 by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., sets the ground rules for trade negotiations including dispute settlement requirements, transparency, consultation, intellectual property and state-owned enterprises among other prerequisites, said the editorial. But “they've run into heavy flak, with critics arguing that requiring Congress to vote on a proposed treaty without changes would only make it easier for the White House to ram through bad trade deals,” said the editorial. “Killing 'fast track' is akin to killing future treaties, which would be self-defeating.”
Following the introduction of the bill, many lawmakers expressed immediate opposition, including House Ways and Means ranking member Sander Levin, D-Mich. (see 14011013). The ratification of free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama is one of the few things Congress has done to promote economic growth, since Republicans took the House in 2011, said the editorial.