AGRIBUSINESS: President Trade Negotiations

In spite of news that the White House is expanding its ability to strike trade deals, Senator Chuck Grassley says he won’t count it as step forward until he sees more than lip service.

Grassley stated, “It’s too bad that we lost four years in the previous term of this President that he didn’t have trade promotion authority. You know the President never signaled that trade was a very important issue for him.”

Grassley went on to add that now the President is asking for trade promotion authority and Grassley thinks he’s signaling that he wants to do trade negotiations in a serious way.

Trade promotion authority, also called fast track negotiation authority, gives the executive branch the ability to negotiate international trade agreements that Congress can approve or strike down without any other input. It expired in 2007 and since then, President Obama has made no move signalling its necessity.