Japan Trade Deal Hearing Will Probably Not Examine Text
Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer said he doesn't know if they'll to be able to evaluate the details of the U.S.-Japan skinny trade deal in the hearing scheduled for next week, because the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has not released the text yet. He said in a Nov. 13 interview it's “troubling" that the House Ways and Means Committee has not received text of the deal, which was signed Sept. 26. "Sometimes dealing with USTR can be a little opaque, which is one of my constants through several administrations," he said.
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He said the subcommittee will hear from expert witnesses about what Congress can do when USTR bifurcates the negotiation process, and the resulting U.S. tariff reductions aren't large enough to require a vote under Trade Promotion Authority. He said the witnesses will talk about issues of TPA compliance and what a skinny trade deal means under World Trade Organization rules. Those rules forbid tariff differences for one country unless the country in question has signed a comprehensive trade deal.