The pending free trade agreements with Korea and Panama are eligible for fast-track congressional treatment, experts say, but differing House and Senate parliamentarian rulings put into question trade promotion authority in the Senate for the pact withColombia… “The prevailing rumors are that the House and Senate parliamentarians have come to opposite conclusions on the question,” William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, told reporters April 8, adding, “These are rumors because no one has said anything publicly because the issue hasn’t been presented.” A Feb. 8 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on TPA refers to the parliamentarian rulings but does not discuss them in detail. “The House parliamentarian concluded that you get one bite at the apple,” Reinsch said, “in the sense that the bill was submitted and that was the bite—there wasn’t a vote—and that it wouldn’t be eligible for the second time around.” He noted that the House has the option of using a “closed rule,” set by the Rules Committee, disallowing amendments and substitutes, which obviates the need for TPA authority in that body. This is not the case in the Senate as it does not have a rules panel that attaches rules to legislation. The Senate parliamentarian was asked the same question privately and advised that TPA was still in effect, Reinsch said, adding, “My guess is that it will get worked out.”
Category: NFTC In the News
The U.S. And China Start An M&A Cold War
For Democratic Senator Jack Reed it is the close ties between Chinese companies and the government in Beijing that makes him suspicious. “The real concern — and it has to be case by case — is that many of these companies are so closely intertwined with the government of China that it is hard to see where the company stops and the country begins, and vice versa,” he said. Such thinking doesn’t go over well in Beijing. “It’s excessive anxiety,” said Mei Xinyu, a researcher at a think tank in China’s Ministry of Commerce. “For the U.S., every bush and tree looks like an enemy soldier,” he said, adapting an old Chinese saying. The next 18 months could be particularly rocky for Sino-U.S. dealmaking, according to William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business association focused on international trade and investment issues. The U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections are due in November 2012. And in China towards the end of next year, President Hu Jintao is expected to hand over the reins of power to his heir-apparent Xi Jinping. “We could see a deterioration next year that is politically motivated in both countries — in that case I think you have a potentially very serious problem,” Reinsch said.
Special Report: The U.S. and China Start An M&A Cold War
White House Seeks Enactment Of FTAs By July 4, Industry Representative Says
The White House wants to move the pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama through Congress by July 4, according to William Lane, government relationsdirector for Caterpillar, who based this assertion on his conversations with senior officials. Speaking April 8 with reporters at an roundtable hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council, Lane said in response to a question that he is “100 percent confident” the administration’s objective is to meet the July 1 deadline for all three deals set by Republican leaders, notably House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.). “We’ve all been in the White House for a lot of signing ceremonies in the last week of July or the first week of August,” Lane said, adding: “None of us are taking vacations.”
Skepticism Remains Despite Manufacturers’ Support For U.S. Colombian Trade Pact
Excerpt: U.S. President Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met Thursday to iron out the details of a U.S.-Colombia free-trade pact. Despite applause from Illinois-based Caterpillar Inc. and the National Association of Manufacturers, skepticism remains that the pact will yield much significant benefit for the struggling U.S. Economy… “Over the years that this has been in development, the administration always said it was a good trade agreement,” said Chuck Dittrich, National Foreign Trade Council vice president for regional trade initiatives. “What this means for a manufacturer is really indirect,” Dittrich added. “A U.S. manufacturer exporting products to Colombia is not really going to be affected by improvements in Colombia’s protection from violence by their trade unionists. But what it does show us is that manufacturers are exporting, and competitively exporting, to a country that has demonstrated they’re committed to the same values that we are.”
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=184396
Latin America’s Gaze Increasingly Turns East
Excerpt: On the heels of U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Latin America, Washington’s traditional role as “regional hegemon” is being reevaluated as its attention focuses on the Arab Spring and an emerging commercial competitor – China – focuses on the U.S.’s backyard… These connections, they claim, not only threaten U.S. regional influence and interests, but also its national security. Others, meanwhile, are sceptical of the idea that China’s current military aims in Latin America put its northern neighbour in direct peril. “The way I see that is getting to know each other,” argued Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the U.S.-based Council of the Americas, referring to Sino-Latin military relations. “One has to watch it, I suppose, but we don’t have to go crazy” in our speculations, he added. In Farnsworth’s view, Chinese pronouncements and actions in the region have suggested a relationship built on commerce, not political or strategic engagement. “I think it’s in the Chinese interests to have a stable region where the rules of the game are known, where they are one of many actors [in the market],” he told a small group of reporters at the National Foreign Trade Council here on Monday. “At one level, the U.S. security presence in the region is making things much more secure for other investors,” he said. “Why would China want to disrupt that?”
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55058
Overnight Money
Excerpt: Speaking of which: The National Foreign Trade Council released a Monday statement suggesting Doha, which looks to help boost less financially stable countries through trade, may not be able to be resuscitated. “Unless there is personal engagement from heads of state in capitals around the world, it is unlikely that the Round will progress toward the successful and ambitious conclusion the U.S. business community advocates and which would kick-start the global economy,” the NFTC said. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/152303-overnight-money-were-looking-at-you-fannie-and-freddie
Trade Groups Say U.S. Falling Behind
Excerpt: The White House’s better-late-than-never approach to three trade agreements doesn’t cut it for trade groups that say American businesses are quickly losing ground to global competitors. Within months, the Obama administration could complete free trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. But conservatives argue they are five years overdue and the delays paved the way for the growing economies in China, Brazil, Argentina and Canada to cut their own deals with these nations and leapfrog the United States. “Time is of the essence,” said Chuck Dittrich, vice president of the National Foreign Trade Council. “Once a trade agreement with another country kicks in, then products from that country become cheaper, and even cheap enough that they replace us and American companies lose out.” To make matters worse, even if these trade deals pass and U.S. companies lower their prices, it won’t necessarily convince customers in these countries to do business with them because they may choose to stick with the supplier they already found, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/28/trade-groups-say-us-falling-behind/?page=1
Business Groups Say Doha Round Hopes Fading
Excerpt: Chances for a deal this year in long-running world trade talks are fading and likely will remain remote unless world leaders become personally involved, an influential U.S. business group said on Monday. “At the beginning of this year there was a new sense of optimism among negotiators in Geneva. That sense of optimism is now quickly fading away,” the National Foreign Trade Council said in a statement. The ongoing impasse in the nearly decade-old talks calls “into question the viability of the Doha round as it currently stands,” said the group, whose members include exporters like Boeing , Caterpillar and Microsoft… “Last week, several key delegations, particularly from emerging economic powers, dug in even deeper in positions that will prevent the conclusion of a deal,” the National Foreign Trade Council said in its statement. “After nearly a decade of talks, it is past time for world leaders to get personally involved and work together to deliver the political will to reach a strong positive result on the tough issues that are stalling the negotiations,” it said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/sns-rt-business-us-usa-tratre72r600-20110328,0,5376061.story
White House’s China Handling Gets Thumbs Up From Business Lobby
“White House’s China Handling Gets Thumbs Up From Business Lobby”
Wall Street Journal
March 21, 2011
By Michael Crittenden
Excerpt: The Obama administration is receiving plaudits for its handling of the complicated relationship with China from an unlikely source: business groups that have not been shy about picking fights with the White House… “The administration has never been as excited about currency as the Congress has,” said William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council. That perspective is shared by business groups, he said, which are more concerned with intellectual-property violations and Chinese policies that require U.S. firms to hand over proprietary information in order to do business in the country. Despite what they see as progress in the relationship with China, business groups are also wary of any possible backsliding by Beijing that hurts U.S. firms. Reinsch said there have been no indications yet that China intends to renege on the long list of commitments U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to in January, but warned “if they took any steps backward you’d hear about it quickly.”
