Ag Policy Blog

White House Pushing Trade Agenda

Chris Clayton
By  Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor
Connect with Chris:

The White House is ramping up its efforts to champion a vote on Trade Promotion Authority after Congress returns from its break next week.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker are holding a press call Thursday to roll out a new report, "United States of Trade," detailing how much each state benefits from trade.

The clock is ticking on Congress to vote on Trade Promotion Authority that would allow the White House to eventually close a deal on the Trans Pacific Partnership and possibly the trade deal with Europe as well. But the Obama Administration recognizes it cannot get either trade deal completed unless Congress authorizes TPA.

Time is ticking away. The longer it takes for congressional committees to craft and bring a TPA bill to the floor, the more likely the debate gets mired in 2016 presidential politics and the less likely it will be for lawmakers in either party to support TPA for a lame-duck administration.

P[L1] D[0x0] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

The White House states Thursday's report "highlights medium- and small-business success stories in all 50 states, demonstrating how each firm is using exports as a tool to grow and support good-paying American jobs. These stories and statistics present snapshot of the state of trade in each of America’s 50 states."

The Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal-Star both reported that Froman visited a Nebraska farm on Wednesday to pump up Trade Promotion Authority.

“It is in our national interest to tear these barriers down,” Froman said at the (Ryan) Ueberrhein family farm, a 1,500-acre operation that produces corn and soybeans. “Nebraska has seen exports triple in the past decade, and it is not just agricultural products but machinery and the tools of agriculture.”

http://dld.bz/…

Froman was joined by U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford, a freshman Democrat who represents Omaha. Froman and the congressmen met with about 30 Nebraska agricultural leaders and then visited a irrigation business. “Through these trade agreements, we’re going to level the playing field,” Froman said.

“Right now over 80 percent of the products we are importing from (Trans-Pacific Partnership) countries come in duty-free. There is zero tariff on them. And yet we face duties of anywhere from 35 to 70, and in some cases up to 400 percent, on some of our products.”

http://dld.bz/…

Follow me on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN.

P[] D[728x170] M[320x75] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]
P[L2] D[728x90] M[320x50] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

Comments

To comment, please Log In or Join our Community .