Bush wants Senate action on trade authority
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“On April 22nd, I’d like to see debate and get them passed,” said the president. “The time for delay must end.” Bush said he had talked to senators and there were enough Republicans and Democrats to pass both measures. Bush announced his deadline, a move to put pressure on the Democratically controlled Senate, during a speech Thursday afternoon at the State Department. The Senate, however, is free to set its own schedule for legislative matters. And it was not clear what, if anything, the administration would do if the Senate fails to act by that date. The president gave no hints what he would do if the Senate does not act by April 22. The president is calling on the Senate to grant him what is called trade promotion authority, the authority to negotiate trade deals without Congress being able to amend them in the future. The bill passed the House and a key Senate committee and is awaiting final action in the Senate. Every president since Gerald Ford has had trade promotion authority up until 1994, when it expired. Bush’s push for the trading powers comes just weeks after he slapped tariffs on imports of steel and softwood lumber because the United States concluded that other countries were unfairly subsidizing those industries, putting American companies at a disadvantage. Bush is also calling for passage of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, a bill which expired last year, granting special trade privileges to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. The bill eliminates tariffs on many of the countries’ exports to the United States, including asparagus and flowers and is viewed as an economic alternative to drug cultivation and trafficking in those countries. Bush granted an extension before the countries must pay tariffs on some of their exports to the United States. That extension expires May 16 and cannot be extended which is why the president is pushing a specific passage deadline of April 22, Buchan said. The White House wants the bill to be expanded to include textiles, a move that some Southern lawmakers oppose, fearing the impact those exports would have on American textile companies. More : edition.cnn.com |