Coalition Seeks to Head Off TPA Amendment

May 10, 2002

The Agricultural Coalition for Trade Promotion Authority has written every senator in opposition to an amendment to the trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation under consideration. The amendment would exempt provisions in future trade agreements that alter U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty and other trade remedy laws from TPA treatment, enabling Congress to debate and vote on those provisions.

That "would seriously undermine the ability of U.S negotiators to get a good deal for U.S. agriculture in the new round of WTO negotiations," the letter noted. "Moreover, it addresses a concern" already addressed in legislation, they added.

Earlier this week, the Coalition issued a letter urging senators to resist all floor amendments to the bill. That letter went to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and noted that the proposed amendment "would allow a point of order to strike any provision from a trade implementing bill that changes U.S. trade remedy laws."

They urged rejection of the amendment. Instead, the TPA bill by Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) "recognizes that ongoing trade negotiations represent an important opportunity for American agriculture and instructs U.S. negotiators to use those negotiations to get the best possible deals for American farmers and ranchers.

The letter to Daschle added, "TPA's detailed negotiating objectives and special legislative procedures are designed to give U.S. negotiators credibility. If U.S. negotiators cannot show trading partners that all the final WTO agreements will be voted on by the Congress, then they will suffer a loss of the very negotiating credibility Congress is trying to create."