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New York Dem Rangel wants Congress off-the-hook if Doha Round fails

WASHINGTON, DC – 04/20/07 – Congress is more than likely “sure to approve a limited extension” of President Bush’s trade promotion authority (TPA) in a bid to assure the successful conclusion of the stalled Doha Round of global trade negotiations, according to House of Representative Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel.

"We are prepared to give a restricted fast-track, limited to the Doha convention," the New York Democrat said in remarks Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington.

According to the New York Democrat, the Bush Administration “would need to make a formal legislative request before Congress would act on the issue.”

Rangel also made clear he does not want the White House to frame its request “in a way that blames Congress for the death of Doha if fast track is not renewed” and that “the length of any renewal would depend on the time estimated to complete the Doha Round.”

Rangel’s comments juxtapose with earlier comments by Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who was widely reported in the press to have told reporters that he saw no urgent need to renew trade promotion authority because the Doha Round was still “a long way” from a successful conclusion.

Responding to a story in the CalTrade Report claiming that Baucus had reversed his position on renewing the TPA based on comments he had made in a by-lined January 4 article in the Wall Street Journal, an aide to the Montana Democrat stated that “he [Baucus] has said before that renewal of fast-track authority might not be completed before TPA's expiration – because it's important to take the time to get it right.”

In the article, the staffer said that Baucus “was indicating here that with no trade agreements in the pipeline, there is less pressure and less momentum in Congress to move right now” and that the senator "continues to maintain that fast-track should be renewed with smart changes to improve labor and environmental provisions, and to make the authority a more powerful job-creating tool for American workers and businesses.”

The White House's TPA expires at the end of June, creating an almost untenable situation for US trade negotiators trying to conclude the Doha Round of trade talks with the 150 members of the World Trade Organization.

The legislation allows the White House to negotiate trade agreements that Congress must approve or reject without making changes.

TPA is considered essential for US trade negotiations on the theory that other countries will refuse to negotiate seriously with the US if Congress has the opportunity to change terms of the proposed deal.

President Bush called for renewal of the legislation in January.

Last week, the US and other key trading partners set a new goal of trying to finish the more than five-year-old talks by the end of this year. That will require countries to make hard bargains they've been unwilling to make so far.

The fate of TPA is just one of many issues hanging over US trade policy.The most controversial issue in those talks has to do with demands by Congressional Democrats that free trade pacts include an enforceable commitment for countries to abide by core International Labor Organization (ILO) standards, such as the freedom to organize and bargain collectively.

There was near agreement on that issue in March, but Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and some others voiced concern US labor groups could use that provision to encourage developing countries to challenge US labor laws, Rangel said.

"We're still working on it and hopefully we can find language that Democrats and Republicans can agree on," Rangel said.

Enough union backing had been rallied in March "for us to be able to say we had union support," he said.

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