The President’s Trade Authority

The White House trade office says it will work with Congress this year to pass legislation to renew President Barack Obama’s authority to conclude new free-trade agreements under a streamlined fast-track process.

Trade promotion authority, a power granted to the President by Congress, expired in 2007. It allows the President to submit trade pacts to Congress for an up or down vote without any amendments. The authority has long been considered essential to assuring other countries that any deal they negotiate with the U.S. will not unravel during debate in Congress.

The Administration hopes to wrap up negotiations on an Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement later this year and has agreed to begin trade talks with the European Union. U.S. chemical companies strongly support these market-opening initiatives.

“Recognizing that a robust, agile U.S. trade agenda is essential to U.S. economic expansion and job growth, we fully support the President’s call for trade promotion authority,” says the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group. The authority will “enable the President to fully engage with negotiating partners and ensure that their best offers are put on the table.”

House of Representatives Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) says he plans to pursue legislation to renew the President’s trade power.

“This authority,” Camp says, “is necessary both to set out the negotiating objectives that Congress sees as vital at the outset of negotiations and to establish the rules for consideration of implementing bills after the negotiations.”