White House creates new inter-agency trade enforcement panel

President Obama signed an executive order on Tuesday morning that creates a new trade agency to aggressively combat unfair trade practices around the world, including in China. 

The new Interagency Trade Enforcement Center will bring together a wide range of trade experts, including analysts and lawyers who will examine enforcement issues, the White House said. 

{mosads}U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will chose the center’s director, and Commerce Secretary John Bryson will choose a deputy deputy director, according to a statement.

The panel will be supported by the Agriculture, Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury departments and the intelligence community, the White House said.

Obama first floated the idea of the agency during his State of the Union address in January — Democratic and Republican lawmakers along with GOP candidates for president have been critical of the administration’s efforts to push China to address U.S. concerns such as undervalued currency, intellectual property theft and indigenous innovation policies they argue have cost jobs here. 

The Senate passed a bill to crack down on the currency and other issues, but the House hasn’t taken up the measure. 

“The president believes that we can’t wait to crack down on unfair trade violations and ensure a level playing field for American workers,” the statement said. 

The White House’s fiscal 2013 budget requests $26 million in funding for the group.

Kirk called the move the “most significant commitment of resources and expertise devoted to trade enforcement since USTR was created 50 years ago.”

“A comprehensive, government-wide structure is long overdue, and we must be vigilant in its implementation,” said House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.).

Levin said the U.S. relationship with China is “without question at present a defining trade issue.”

“China presents a unique and formidable enforcement challenge, and this initiative is a major step towards developing a new model to address that challenge,” he said.

Levin and Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), ranking member on the Ways and Means subcommittee on Trade, have pushed the Obama administration to develop a strategy to “rebalance” the trade relationship with China and root out bad practices around the world.

“The president is answering that call,” McDermott said.

“I also call upon my Republican colleagues to provide the administration with the funding it needs to implement this important new initiative,” he said.

Last year, the lawmakers and 35 other House Democrats wrote to the House Appropriations Committee requesting additional funding to expand USTR’s efforts to investigate China’s policies.

Although concerns about China’s trade practices have dominated the discussion, Obama administration officials told reporters on Tuesday that the panel will focus on global issues and will be able to address problems “more fully and quickly.”

Funds will be redirected within the Commerce Department to jump-start the panel’s work, with an aim to be up and running within 90 days.

That would mean the panel would be ready to act in advance of Russia joining the World Trade Organization, which is expected this summer.

Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), chairman of the House Trade Working Group, wrote a letter to Obama in January requesting he establish the new trade enforcement office, and is working to build support on Capitol Hill for fully funding the new office at the requested level of $26 million.

“Signing this order brings us one more important step closer to the level of trade enforcement we need to counter the predatory practices of countries like China,” Michaud said. “Now Congress needs to step up and make this new office a priority by fully funding its operations,” he said. 

“Politicians like to talk about the need to create a level playing field for our businesses so that they can compete in the global marketplace. Now it’s time for Congress to back that rhetoric up with action.”