Obama’s
Fast Track Bill a last-ditch move to rescue TPPA
Jane
Kelsey
US Trade Representative Mike Froman (C) speaks at a press conference for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in Sydney last year. - Photo: AFP/FILE
17
March, 2015
‘With
less than two months until the window is likely to close for
President Obama to get a deal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement (TPPA) under his watch, the administration has put a bill
before Congress to grant him “fast track” authority’, according
to Professor Jane Kelsey who monitors the negotiations.
The
controversial process of Fast Track, euphemistically called Trade
Promotion Authority, would require Congress to vote yes or not to a
final text and it time limits the debate to prevent filibustering.
According
to Professor Kelsey a number of governments at the TPPA table have
recently said they won’t reach a final deal unless Obama has Fast
Track, including New Zealand.
‘Doing
something this week was really do or die for the President, even
though he doesn’t have the votes to get the bill through,
especially in the House of Representatives’, Kelsey said.
The 110-page
Bill is
a generalised wish list of what the US wants from the TPPA, while
protecting its domestic interests. Although the content has been
heavily negotiated before being introduced, the negotiating
objectives can be ignored.
‘What’s
most significant, and the reason there will be a dog-fight, is
Section 4 that says what powers Congress is giving up. It is little
changed from an earlier Fast Track law that sank last year’, Kelsey
said.
There
were no House Democrats willing to co-sponsor the Bill. Powerful
ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee
Sander Levindescribed
the negotiating objectives as ‘obsolete or woefully inadequate’
while putting ‘Congress in the back seat’.
ronically,
Obama is relying heavily on support from Republicans, but there is a
substantial bloc of conservative Republicans who consider Obama to be
an ‘imperial president’ and are loathe to grant him any more
executive power through Fast Track. Republican leaders have said he
would need 50 votes from the Democrats. The latest counts from
Washington analysts such as Politico put him well short.
The New
York Times predicts
it will be one of the toughest legislative battles of Obama’s last
19 months in office.
US
consumer group Public
Citizen says
there is no guarantee the Bill will even get to a vote, and might be
withdrawn rather than fail. The three major attempts to get Fast
Track in the past 25 years saw one pass by 27 votes in 1991 and
another passed by 2 votes; the third failed.
Tabling
the Bill now is meant to have a demonstration effect, ahead of the
make or break ministerial meeting scheduled for late May. Obama hopes
it will give the talks new momentum by convincing the eleven other
countries to ignore the evidence and believe he can get it passed.
'Let’s
hope for New Zealand’s sake that Trade Minister Groser and Prime
Minister Key actually stick by their statements and refuse to make
any political trade-offs they know Congress can pick apart', Kelsey
said.
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