Obama embraces more vigorous trade agenda

Obama embraces more vigorous trade agenda    The United States will set an ambitious goal of doubling exports within the next five years to help regenerate economic growth and create 2 million jobs, President Barack Obama said Tuesday in his first State of the Union address.
   To kick-start the effort, he announced the start of a National Export Initiative targeted at helping farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and said the administration would work to reform export control policies while still ensuring national security interests are protected.
   The value of U.S. exports in goods and services totaled $1.8 trillion in 2008 and $1.4 trillion in January-November 2009, according to the latest government statistics.
   The president indicated he would revitalize free trade negotiations that have largely been absent from the administration's agenda during its first year in office, but added that moving forward on trade also requires using enforcement mechanisms to make sure other countries abide by the terms of deals. A reference to Korea, Panama and Columbia suggests the administration might press Congress to ratify pending free trade agreements with those countries.
   'We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are. If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores,' Obama said. 'But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules. And that’s why we’ll continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea and Panama and Colombia.'
   The Bush administration finalized trade deals with those three countries, but progress has stalled because Congress has been preoccupied with the massive legislative debate over health care. Many Democrats believe trade deals result in domestic job losses and want to reopen the deals because of a desire to improve U.S. access to those markets as well as labor, human rights and environmental standards.
   More worrisome than not ratifying those free trade agreements is the fact that the Obama administration has yet to ask for Trade Promotion Authority, which expired in 2008 and allows the White House to fast track negotiations without congressional interference other than a final vote, Megan Montgomery, director of government affairs for the American Association of Exporters and Importers, said last week.
   Having that strong negotiating tool would enable U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to negotiate new bilateral and regional FTAs, she said at a trade seminar in Los Angeles organized by AAEI.
   Meanwhile, the European Union and Asian countries are organizing their own free trade blocs at the expense of the United States, she said. The U.S. cannot wait for the World Trade Organization's Doha round of negotiations to produce a global trade deal, which is unlikely to meet expectations if finalized, and needs to get going on talks with individual countries, she added.
   'We're missing the boat. The EU is happy to walk into the vacuum of Doha' to create trade opportunities for its businesses, Montgomery said.
   In November, the Obama administration said it intended to engage with the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other countries in the region in an effort to better integrate the Asia-Pacific economies and spur U.S. exports to the region. Initial talks will be with Singapore, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Peru and Vietnam.
   The U.S. Trade Representative has said the start of TPP talks is an opportunity to renegotiate trade priorities with Congress, but the Republican minority wants to stick to the May 2007 understanding with the Bush administration on labor and environmental conditions for trade deals.
   The TPP may be a way to harmonize some of the existing U.S. free trade agreements in the area and bring consistency to provisions, such as those dealing with rules of origin, Dick Belanger, a trade attorney with Sidley Austin, said at the AAEI event.
   Congressional staff members have indicated that any vote on the U.S.-Korea FTA would have to come after the fall mid-term election, which means it could happen by the end of the year or in 2011, Belanger said. There are no indications yet about when Congress might vote on the Panama or Colombia trade deals, he added.
   In his speech to the nation, Obama also stressed infrastructure investment as a way to help spur job growth and urged the Senate to pass a jobs bill, which essentially is a smaller version of last year's stimulus plan. The House has already passed its own bill.
   'From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products,' Obama said.
   He will be in Tampa, Fla., today to promote stimulus grants for a high-speed passenger rail project, one of the administration's priorities.
   'There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help move our nation’s goods, services, and information,' he said. ' Eric Kulisch