Pending FTAs pass Senate, House committees

Pending FTAs pass Senate, House committees    The Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees on Thursday approved pending U.S. free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama in 'mock' markups.
   “The three trade agreements are a sure-fire way to create American jobs by growing U.S. exports of goods and services — and they do not require one dime of new government spending,' said Ways and Means Committee Chairman David Camp, R-Mich., in a statement. 'The independent U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the three pending trade agreements together would increase U.S. exports by at least $13 billion.'
   The Senate Finance Committee went a step further to approve the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program extension. TAA provides assistance to workers, firms and farmers affected by increased trade.

Camp

   The committee also approved the extensions of the expired Generalized System of Preferences and Andean Trade Preference Act, both retroactively and through July 31, 2013. These programs lower costs for U.S. manufacturers importing from developing countries and give developing countries duty-free access to the U.S. market for certain products.

Bacus

   'The jobs and opportunities this package creates are simply too important not to work together to enact both Trade Adjustment Assistance and the trade agreements — and to do so without delay,' said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
   The committees considered the draft implementing bills during a mock markup because Congress cannot offer amendments to the final implementing bills submitted by the administration under the Trade Promotion Authority Act — also known as “fast track” — procedures. Committee mock markups are the only opportunities for Congress to offer amendments to the administration's proposals.
   Following administration review of any amendments that the Finance and Ways and Means committees approve on the draft implementing bills, final versions of the implementing bills will be submitted to Congress for an up-or-down vote.
   Industry groups applauded the Finance and Ways and Means committees' approval of the long-awaited trade agreements and await further action.
   'We are encouraged that the Senate Finance Committee favorably reported the Korea bill with TAA included, and we urge House and Senate leaders to come together to ensure that in the end the FTAs and TAA, along with the other preference programs, are considered and approved together,' said the Washington-based National Foreign Trade Council in a statement. 'All of these agreements and programs are critical pieces of the trade agenda and should move in tandem as a package before the August recess.' ' Chris Gillis