Republican and Democratic lawmakers responded to President Trump’s newly published trade agenda — which asserts that the U.S. will aggressively defend its sovereignty when it comes to trade policy — by urging the administration not to withdraw from the rules-based global trading system, despite its imperfections.But Republicans, in their reactions, largely sought to find common ground with Trump’s trade agenda while Democrats offered sharp criticism of the plan, citing a lack of concrete policies offered in the more than 300-page document the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative submitted to Congress on March 1.House Ways & Means ranking member Richard Neal (D-MA) said he agreed with the administration’s criticism of the World Trade Organization, but suggested it was considering an extreme approach.”The Administration is right to criticize the WTO international dispute settlement process, but when it says it will ‘aggressively defend American sovereignty over matters of trade policy,’ it sounds like the Administration is considering a far too drastic response,” he said in a March 1 statement. “We need to fix the problems with the current international trading system, not scrap the system altogether.”Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI), Neal’s predecessor as ranking member, echoed that sentiment, saying the global trading system needs to be fixed rather than withdrawn from.Ways & Means Republicans were more more explicit in their support of the WTO and calls for the U.S. to remain a major player in it.”I strongly believe that our current trade agreements – including the WTO – have been successful for Americans because these agreements establish a firm rule of law to hold our competitors in check and open markets for us to sell our goods, services, and farm products,” committee chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) said in a March 1 statement. “They have also made a broad array of products available to American families at affordable prices. And when other countries don’t follow the rules, our agreements give us powerful tools through a dispute settlement process to retaliate against them.”Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert (R-WA) said the WTO’s dispute settlement system gives the U.S. ability to enforce the rules it helped shape.”Our current trade agreements have benefited families and communities across my home state and the country,” he said in a statement. “We can – and do – hold our partners accountable to these agreements through rigorous dispute settlement proceedings with real teeth, including at the World Trade Organization. Dispute settlement allows us to win a level playing field for American businesses and workers when our trading partners have not followed the rules.”Thomas Sneeringer, the president of the Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws, a coalition dedicated to combating unfair trade practices, cheered the president’s new trade agenda, including its rhetoric on the WTO.”Especially welcome is the recognition of – and the need to restore — U.S. sovereignty over our trade policy,” Sneeringer said in a press release. “A policy aimed at revising U.S. trade policy to obtain reciprocity in fact is important for our country, as is ensuring strong enforcement and a WTO Dispute Settlement system that doesn’t create obligations never agreed to by the U.S.”The report itself says the “core provision of the DSU was the express legal requirement that the WTO,through its dispute settlement findings and recommendations, could not ‘add to or diminish the rights or obligations’ of the United States, or other countries under the WTO agreements.”Consistent with these important protections and applicable U.S. law, the Trump Administration will aggressively defend American sovereignty over matters of trade policy,” the report adds, referring to the Uruguay Round Agreements Act and Articles 3 and 19 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding.Elsewhere, the report states that WTO disputes have been a useful tool to pry open foreign markets and ensure fair access for U.S. exports.Broadly, the report says that “through the vigorous application of U.S. trade laws and active use of WTO dispute settlement procedures, the United States opens foreign markets to U.S. goods and services and helps defend U.S workers, businesses, and farmers against unfair practices.”More specifically – for example, in regard to U.S. objectives at the WTO TRIPS Council — the report states that the U.S. will continue to “resolve differences through consultations and use of dispute settlement procedures, where appropriate.”On subsidies issues, the report says “it is frequently advantageous to pursue resolution of these problems through a combination of informal and formal contacts, including, where warranted, dispute settlement action in the WTO.”Democrats from the congressional trade committees slammed the document for lacking critical details. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) blasted it for leaving “the American people in the dark” on the trade actions Trump intends to take.Neal also skewered the report, describing it as “short on specifics” and saying it “raises more questions than it answers.””As we move forward, Congress needs answers to what this Administration’s trade agenda really is – and we need them sooner rather than later,” he added.”While I appreciate the Administration recognizing issues like foreign government subsidies, currency manipulation, and dispute settlement provisions, where are their solutions?” Ways & Means trade subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) asked in a statement. “This ‘Trade Agenda’ lacks a coherent plan to tackle these issues that Democrats have been raising for decades,”The president of the National Foreign Trade Council, Rufus Yerxa, echoed both the Democrats’ assertion that the agenda lacks detail and Republican anxieties that Trump might head the U.S. away from the WTO.”This is not really a detailed agenda of specific trade policy objectives, but more of a general statement of intent seeking to orient U.S. trade policy in a more assertive, reciprocity-based direction,” Yerxa said in a statement sent to Inside U.S. Trade. “The implications for how this approach will fit with our historic commitment to the existing, rules-based trading system remain to be seen. For the business community it is vital that the US continue as a credible leader in that system, a leader able to ensure respect for the principles of open markets and fair trade”.But the agenda drew some praise from BSA | The Software Alliance, which welcomed its identification of constraints on cross-border data flows as a trade barrier, among other issues.”BSA is pleased the agenda recognizes problems caused by restrictions on the flow of data across borders, as well as unauthorized use of American intellectual property, and the need for increased IP protections,” the group said in a statement. “The Administration’s prioritization of efforts to ensure data can flow across borders and to oppose data localization are data flows is essential for American competitiveness and job growth.” — Jack Caporal (jcaporal@iwpnews.com) and Brett Fortnam (bfortnam@iwpnews.com)
