Lawmakers Praise U.S.-EU Announcement; Repeat Calls for TPA
Trade leaders in the House and Senate praised June 17’s announcement that the U.S. and EU will begin trade agreement negotiations in early July, but warned the Obama administration must secure Trade Promotion Authority for any agreement to be successful. “While I am pleased the President is formally launching negotiations today, it ultimately won’t matter unless these negotiations can be concluded and enacted into law,” said Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a statement (here). “That is why it is imperative that the President show some real leadership on trade and begin working with Congress in earnest to renew [TPA].” House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., agreed. The U.S.-EU agreement should tackle tariffs, non-tariff and regulatory barriers, he said in a statement (here). “Developing Trade Promotion Authority is a vital and necessary tool to ensuring the success of these negotiations.” Democratic Ways and Means leaders also said the agreement should resolve regulatory differences (here), while Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said the agreement must address EU restrictions on U.S. agriculture exports (here).
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President Obama and European leaders made the announcement June 17, on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the agreement -- formally called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership -- could add $127 billion to the U.S. economy, and $157 billion to the EU economy. “We’re talking about what could be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history; a deal that will have a greater impact than all the other trade deals on the table put together,” he said (read the remarks here).