WASHINGTON – The Senate Finance Committee has produced the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, a bill to grant the president trade promotion authority (TPA), without which supporters argue the U.S. has no leverage in brokering trade deals with other countries.
Using trade promotion authority, Congress can simplify its role in international trade by giving the president the authority to broker trade deals, which are then sent through Congress on up or down votes without amendments. On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee produced a bill that would grant TPA to President Obama, after what will likely be an uphill battle before both chambers of Congress.
In a hearing just prior to the decision, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told lawmakers TPA has another benefit beyond speeding up the trade process.
?I?ve been across the table with some of my colleagues, ag ministers from states that we?re currently negotiating [with],? said Vilsack. ?They are not interested in putting their final or best offer on the table, until they are assured whatever agreement Ambassador Froman is able to negotiate is ultimately provided an up or down vote, and not subject to modification or amendment.
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman also testified before the Finance committee. He urged legislators for TPA, which supporters argue is necessary to pass the pending 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While lowering Japanese tariffs on U.S. exports is a primary goal of TPP, Froman explained that other countries are in the crosshairs too, such as Canada and its restrictions on American poultry.
?Before Canada joined TPP, we had a series of consultations with them about the importance of addressing a number of issues that were not fully addressed in NAFTA, including access to the poultry market,? Froman told lawmakers. ?We are encouraging our Canadian partners to come to the table on this; we have not yet seen the kind of engagement on agricultral market access from them, that we would like to see. Certainly all TPP parties agree to achieve a certain level of standard when it comes to market access, and we are hopeful that Canada will be able to achieve that objective as we reach closure with the rest of the TPP parties.?
To hear more about the Senate Finance Committee’s TPA bill, click the audio player above this story.
