Ways and Means Dems want more trade enforcement

On Wednesday, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, cited the NTE as he called for restrictions to be lifted on American beef. In a speech on Monday, Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking member on Ways and Means, signaled that globalization had made the idea that trade issues work themselves out in time obsolete, because it allows developing countries to become competitive more quickly. 

In the letter, the Democrats commended the administration for bringing four separate World Trade Organization cases against China, including one dealing with subsidies for wind turbines, and for altering the auto provisions in a pending free-trade agreement with South Korea. 

But the lawmakers also hit at China for manipulating their currency and for limiting access to American exports. The NTE found that China had placed barriers to beef and agricultural products, among other things. 

“The need is immediate and urgent,” the Democrats wrote, calling for more administration action. “In the past decade, the United States trade deficit has reached unprecedented and unsustainable levels, upwards of 5 percent of overall GDP in 2007 and 2008.”

The NTE came as policymakers are trying to see three separate trade pacts — South Korea, Panama and Colombia — through to completion. 

The Obama administration has said the Korea deal is basically ready, but that Colombia and Panama still need some work. For their part, Republicans have urged the president and his trade officials to move more swiftly on those latter two agreements, with some even vowing to hold up the Korea deal as leverage.