Posted on 07/26/2002 2:53:15 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Conressional negotiators reached an agreement shortly before midnight Thursday on sweeping U.S. trade legislation, clearing the way for the president to gain long-sought trade-negotiating powers as soon as next week.
House and Senate conferees agreed on a five-year renewal of trade promotion authority, or TPA, which a U.S. president last enjoyed in 1994.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., said the conference bill is likely to pass the House Friday; while Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., predicted the Senate will show broad bipartisan support in a vote likely to occur next week.
President George W. Bush ( news - web sites)'s administration has been lobbying aggressively for TPA, previously known as fast-track authority. The authority preserves Congress' constitutional right to approve or reject trade agreements, but prevents lawmakers from altering or stalling these agreements in the process.
"This is clearly the most historic trade legislation Congress has passed...ever," Baucus said late Thursday. He cited provisions calling on the executive branch to consult more-closely with Congress on trade agreements before they are signed.
The negotiators removed a Senate-approved amendment, known as Dayton -Craig, that would have limited TPA in matters affecting U.S. laws on antidumping and countervailing duties and other import safeguards. U.S. trading partners criticize perceived overuse of these laws as protectionism, and the Bush administration has put them on the agenda for the World Trade Organization ( news - web sites)'s current round of negotiations.
Bush's trade advisors had threatened to veto the bill if the Dayton -Craig amendment remained.
Closer trade consultations with Congress address the concerns' that led to Dayton -Craig, said Thomas, who chaired the trade-bill conference.
If Bush's chief trade negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, doesn't keep Congress in the loop, "we have mechanisms that will focus his attention on the need to do so," Thomas said.
While the Bush administration got what it wanted in TPA, Senate Democrats have secured nearly all of their proposal for a major expansion in aid to U.S. workers harmed by freer trade. The compromise House-Senate trade bill includes $ 10 billion to $12 billion over ten years in trade adjustment assistance, or TAA, a near tripling of the aid program.
The bill would enhance existing benefits and expand coverage to workers in industries "upstream" of those directly displaced by imports, as well as, for the first time, farmers and fishermen. It would also cover 65% of the premiums laid-off workers pay on health insurance, a compromise between the Senate's 70% proposal and the House's 60% plan.
"We're showing to people, American workers, that if they're dislocated by trade that we're there for them," Baucus said.
The negotiators agreed TAA should, in certain cases, apply to U.S. workers displaced when their companies move manufacturing overseas in addition to those affected by foreign firms' imports competing with their companies' products.
Workers already qualify for the aid when their companies shift production to Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement, but Thomas had resisted the Senate's proposal to extend benefits for production shifts to non- NAFTA countries.
Under a compromise, TAA will apply for production shifts to countries with which the U.S. has free-trade or preferential-tariff agreements, and will potentially apply for shifts to other countries, at the U.S. government's discretion.
The TPA and TAA legislation was harnessed to renewal of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which grants import tariff relief to Bolivia , Colombia , Ecuador and Peru as an incentive in their campaigns against the illegal drug business.
The Andean tariff relief expired in December, and the four countries have emphasized the urgency of renewing it amid global financial uncertainty and domestic unrest. Thomas said the compromise bill moves closer to the House version of the Andean tariff-relief act, which gave new breaks for the region's apparel and tuna industries. The Senate's version was more of a straight renewal.
Also included in the bill is a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences, which provides import tariff relief to a broader array of developing countries.
Thomas said votes on the conference trade bill would have only a very limited impact on mid-term Congressional elections in November, as the compromise bill addresses many House opponents' criticisms and, in any case, a majority of lawmakers are already on record in support of the bill.
TRADE DEFICIT: Formally termed a balance of trade deficit, a condition in which a nation's imports are greater than exports. In other words, a country is buying more stuff for foreigners than foreigners are buying from domestic producers. A trade deficit is usually thought to be bad for a country. For this reason, some countries seek to reduce their trade deficit by--
- establishing trade barriers on imports,
- reducing the exchange rate (termed devaluation) such that exports are less expensive and imports more expensive, or
- invading foreign countries with sizable armies.
Wealth is created only by engaging in value-added activities. By the same token, Service sector activities do not create wealth, they merely transfer, redistribute and eventually dissipate wealth as consumption. Thus, as value-added activities move offshore and the U.S. labor force shifts to the Service Sector, wealth is dissipated, not created. And the U.S. standard of living declines as a result.WEALTH: The net ownership of material possessions and productive resources. In other words, the difference between physical and financial assets that you own and the liabilities that you owe. Wealth includes all of the tangible consumer stuff that you possess, like cars, houses, clothes, jewelry, etc.; any financial assets, like stocks, bonds, bank accounts, that you lay claim to; and your ownership of resources, including labor, capital, and natural resources. Of course, you must deduct any debts you owe.
VALUE ADDED: The increase in the value of a good at each stage of the production process. The value that's being increased is specifically the ability of a good to satisfy wants and needs either directly as a consumption good or indirectly as a capital good. A good that provides greater satisfaction has greater value. In essence, the whole purpose of production is to transform raw materials and natural resources that have relatively little value into goods and services that have greater value.
SERVICE: An activity that provides direct satisfaction of wants and needs without the production of a tangible product or good. Examples include information, entertainment, and education. This term good should be contrasted with the term good, which involves the satisfaction of wants and needs with tangible items. You're likely to see the plural combination of these two into a single phrase, "goods and services," to indicate the wide assortment of economic production from the economy's scarce resources.
By any other name it actually will be the same result as all other 'fast tracks'. We will end up in with bad agreements increasing our trade deficits to whoever we make 'agreements' with. Hey we might even 'loan' them the money to be able to buy our factories.
Our government is hell-bent on swapping the industrial engine which provided us with prosperity and defense capability for an 'information-service' engine. Now all we have to do is find an international market for our 'information (audited)', our hamburger making knowhow, and our shopping center discount store expertise.
Meanwhile our dollar does the international money limbo - how low can you go.
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