{"id":3844,"date":"2015-06-24T13:54:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T13:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grains.org\/ltamex\/trade-promotion-authority-passes-boosts-prospects-for-successful-negotiations\/"},"modified":"2015-06-24T13:54:01","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T13:54:01","slug":"trade-promotion-authority-passes-boosts-prospects-for-successful-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grains.org\/ltamex\/trade-promotion-authority-passes-boosts-prospects-for-successful-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade Promotion Authority Passes, Boosts Prospects for Successful Negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Senate passed legislation Wednesday granting the Obama Administration trade promotion authority (TPA), a major step forward in the effort to negotiate and ratify the comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement currently under negotiation by 12 Pacific Rim countries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Passage of TPA is critical to moving forward with a strong trade policy agenda,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd said Floyd Gaibler, U.S. Grains Council (USGC) director of trade policy and biotechnology.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The TPP agreement will involve difficult choices by all the countries concerned, and several of the United States\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 negotiating partners made it clear that they will not sign a final deal without an assurance that it will be voted on as a package, without being picked apart by unilateral amendments. TPA provides that assurance. Congress will have the final say on a TPP agreement, and it must be voted on, up or down, as a whole.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/span><\/p>\n Last week, opponents of TPP had scored a temporary victory by defeating trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which had <\/span>been seen as a necessary precondition for passage of TPA. But, TAA was also approved this week as a seperate measure, and both bills now await the President’s signature.<\/p>\n TPA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s passage will smooth the way for progress on TPP, which negotiators hope to complete this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For the United States, TPP is potentially the biggest trade deal in decades,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Gaibler said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The 12 countries that are involved account for 40 percent of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gross domestic product (GDP). A comprehensive, high-quality deal is critical for U.S. agriculture, which is a consistent leader in exports. An agricultural free trade zone encompassing much of the Pacific Rim also promises to be a powerful tool for projecting exports well beyond the circle of TPP signatories.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/span><\/p>\n