House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Philip Crane (R-IL) introduced
a bill (HR 2149) to provide the President with Trade Promotion Authority
(TPA) that would enable the US to conclude international trade agreements.
Obtaining TPA, formerly known as fast track, has been one of the Administration's
top goals with respect to its trade agenda.
Specifically, this bill would allow the Administration to broker deals
on goods, services, agriculture, intellectual property, investment and
e-commerce through June 1, 2005, with an extension through June 1, 2007
unless Congress passes a resolution disapproving such an extension.
However, this bill does not contain provisions for labor or environmental
objectives - a demand by democrats. A Democratic leader on trade, Rep.
Robert Matsui (D-CA) said that this proposal is doomed because of its silence
on labor and environmental standards.
Rep. Crane and other Republicans have argued that the bill would not
preclude the Administration from brokering trade deals that include other
provisions, including environmental and labor standards, as long as they
are: directly related to trade; consistent with US sovereignty; not protectionist;
and free of language obstructing a country's ability to pass laws consistent
with macroeconomic development. They also noted that the measure preserves
the administration's ability to negotiate side agreements on labor, the
environment and other issues, though those agreements would be subject
to the normal legislative approval process, meaning they could be amended.
In an attempt to find middle ground on the issue, a bipartisan bill
is about to be introduced in the Senate by Sens. Bob Graham (D-FL) and
Frank Murkowski (R-AK), that would encourage, but not require, the president
to make worker rights and the environment principal objectives when he
negotiates new multinational trade pacts. Murkowski said later that his
compromise approach "is very likely the only kind of legislation that can
get through Congress this year."
As for actual voting on the legislation, House Majority Leader Dick
Armey (R-TX) said that the House will likely vote on TPA before the August
recess. The future is less certain in the Senate, where the Finance Committee
Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has suggested that there will be no movement
this year without a compromise on the two main side issues of labor and
the environment.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has made it plain that renewal
of presidential trade negotiating authority is currently on the Senate's
back burner, saying other trade matters must come first. He added that
he wanted to take up the Vietnam and Jordan trade bills first. Daschle
would only say that TPA would be addressed "sometime this congressional
session."
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