WASHINGTON — House and Senate committees this week easily agreed to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate a sweeping trade accord with Pacific nations, but the package of bills intended to speed completion of the deal also imposes difficult burdens on its negotiators. [by Jonathan Weisman | April 23, 2015 | NY Times]…
The outspoken businessman, who is known to start brawls on Twitter, sent out a series of tweets explaining his opposition. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an attack on America’s business. It does not stop Japan’s currency manipulation. This is a bad deal,” he said. [by Alanna Petroff | April 23, 2015 | CNN Money] The U.S.…
MSNBC host Ed Schultz excoriated President Barack Obama during his program Thursday evening, blasting the president over a joke he made about the opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership from some of the liberal cable network’s hosts. [by Oliver Darcy | April 23, 2015 | The Blaze] “If you were watching MSNBC and all this…
Ways & Means Committee approved the Fast Track trade authority bill on a near party line vote. 25-13. All Republicans on the committee plus two Democrats (Kind and Blumenauer) voted for the bill. Ranking Member Sander Levin offered a substitute trade authority bill that would have replaced aspirational, unenforceable trade negotiation objectives with mandatory negotiating…
Updated: The Senate Finance Committee late Wednesday night (April 22) approved by a vote of 20-6 a bill that would extend Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to the president for up to six years, with amendments regarding its negotiating objectives addressing boycotts of Israel and human rights. A third amendment added to the TPA bill,…
The Senate Finance Committee held a long “executive session” yesterday, April 22, 2015, on the misguided “fast track” trade authority bill. There were many amendments. Here is what happened. Summary: CPA opposes the fast track trade authority bill (S 995) because it continues past trade deficit problems. It does not include a balanced trade goal,…
House Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) has announced that he plans to offer a substitute amendment to a pending fast-track bill at a committee markup on Thursday (April 23) that would spell out detailed negotiating objectives for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in a move that has the backing of House…
Last Thursday, Senators Hatch, Wyden, and Ryan introduced “The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015,” which is the Trade Promotion Authority bill that would grant President Obama “fast track” authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. [by Michele Nash-Hoff | April 20, 2015 | Saving U.S. Manufacturing blog] The TPP agreement…
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said legislation to renew trade promotion authority and other trade bills could reach both the House and Senate floors by early May but will not be approved before a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next week. [by Adam Behsudi | April 22, 2015 |…
(Wonk Alert) This week I’ve heard some congressional staff erroneously claim that Congress can rescind fast track procedures if the Obama administration fails to achieve the 150 negotiating objectives. This is not true. The Hatch/Wyden/Ryan trade authority bill introduced last week was promoted as an improvement over prior trade authority bills. It “puts Congress…
