Category: NFTC In the News
Drivers In Cuba Turn Genius To Ensure Classic Detroit Cars Still Run
Tax Wars: The Accidental Billion-Dollar Break
Senate Poised to Vote on Trade Aid That May Advance Agreements
Excerpt: The Senate is scheduled to vote today on renewing benefits for workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition, a step that would open the way for President Barack Obama to submit three free-trade agreements…. “It’s been four years that people have been hanging around waiting for these things to be submitted to the floor,” William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and a Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration, said in an interview. “I’m optimistic we can get all this done.”
Business Groups Express Opposition to China Currency Legislation”
Excerpt: Legislation that would pressure China to accelerate the value of its currency would likely have the opposite effect and result in a retaliation against U.S. exports, a coalition of business groups said Wednesday. Spearheaded by the U.S.-China Business Council, 51 trade associations with broad interests sent a letter to Senate leaders as well as each Senate office asking lawmakers to halt efforts to pass a measure…. The groups signing the letter include, the American Chambers of Commerce in China, Shanghai, South China and Southwest China as well as the American Soybean Association, Business Roundtable, Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, National Foreign Trade Council, Telecommunications Industry Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/182983-businesses-express-opposition-to-china-currency-legislation
Ruffled Feathers: U.S. Escalates Fight Over China’ Poultry Penalties
Excerpt: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative brought an unfair trade complaint against China on Tuesday for allegedly locking U.S. poultry exports out of the world’s second-largest economy, the latest action in a widening gulf between the two trading partners…. There’s a bigger issue at stake, said William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which advocates free-trade policies. “While the complaint focuses correctly on the details of this particular case, it appears that the larger issue is the extent to which the Chinese actually conduct a fair, impartial, fact-based investigation versus the extent to which they use these cases – and determine the outcomes – based on achieving political or trade policy objectives of their own,” he said.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/20/3382979/ruffled-feathers-us-escalates.html#ixzz1YgqpcLCm
Senate leader vows push on China currency bill
Excerpt: The Senate will try to pass legislation in coming weeks aimed at forcing China to stop holding its currency below market value, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday…. Earlier on Tuesday, Representative Kevin Brady, who chairs the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, said it would be wrong to “punish” U.S. consumers for China’s currency practices by slapping duties on Chinese goods. He said lawmakers “made a mistake” in the past by focusing exclusively on exchange rate concerns when there were so many other challenges in the U.S.-China trade relationship. “China’s currency is a perennial problem and a high priority but it is not the only challenge facing us,” Brady said in a speech to the business group USA Engage. The House Ways and Means Committee plans a hearing in “early fall” on China trade concerns, Brady
said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/13/us-usa-china-currency-idUSTRE78C7JU20110913
Rep Brady optimistic US to OK trade deals very soon
Excerpt: A senior Republican lawmaker said he was optimistic the U.S. Congress would pass three long-delayed trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia “very soon”. Representative Kevin Brady on Tuesday said his understanding was the White House, Senate leaders and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner have agreed on a “very tight process” for moving the trade deals and a separate bill to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance.” Brady, chairman of a House subcommittee on trade, said he hoped the Senate would pass a TAA bill as early as next week and send it to the House for approval. That would set the stage for the White House to submit the trade pacts. “I’m optimistic that we can get this done and get this done very soon,” Brady said in remarks to the anti-unilateral sanctions business group, USA Engage.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/13/usa-trade-deals-idUSS1E78C15S20110913
Momentum builds for U.S. action on trade deals
Excerpt: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday said the Senate would soon begin debate on a bill to help retrain workers thrown out of work by foreign competition, setting the stage for President Barack Obama to submit three long-delayed trade deals to Congress…. But Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, said on Tuesday he believed the White House, Senate leaders and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner now have agreed on a “very tight process” for moving the trade deals and a separate bill to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance.” “I’m optimistic that we can get this done and get this done very soon,” Brady said in remarks to the anti-unilateral sanctions business group, USA Engage.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/13/us-usa-trade-deals-idUSTRE78C7QW20110913?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
US Rep Brady Urges Senate To Pass Trade Bill Without Amendments
Excerpt: Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), a leading Republican on trade issues, urged the Senate Tuesday to quickly pass a trade-related bill without amendments to help clear the way for approval of free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. The Texas Republican who heads the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee said he is optimistic that the three trade pacts will be passed “very soon,” with a path worked out to meet a White House demand that funding for job retraining to help workers displaced by trade be passed at the same time. Brady confirmed that the plan is for the Senate to attach a scaled-back version of the retraining program, known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA, to a bill passed by the House last week to provide duty-free access for imports from developing countries. “I hope that the Senate will immediately turn to that bill and pass it with the TAA deal, defeating all other amendments,” he said in prepared remarks for a speech to the USA Engage business group coalition. “At that point, we hope that the administration will send up the pending agreements, and then the House, as the Speaker has promised, can consider these agreements and TAA in tandem.”
