USTR Kirk says Obama wants to move FTAs “sooner rather than later”
April 21, 2009
World Trade\Interactive
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said April 20 that the Obama administration will begin work “immediately” to develop plans for implementing the free trade agreements the U.S. has negotiated with Colombia and Panama. According to Kirk, the president wants both agreements approved by Congress “sooner rather than later.” Press sources suggested that the Panama FTA could come before lawmakers as early as this summer.
The White House has previously said it intends to come up with a list of “benchmarks” that will have to be met to move each of these agreements forward. Kirk said he is currently engaged in that process and that he has consulted with key House and Senate leaders. Obama discussed the Colombia FTA with President Alvaro Uribe during the Summit of the Americas this past weekend, but no specific progress on outstanding issues was apparently made during those talks.
In related news, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Ranking Member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to President Obama April 20 urging him to begin working to advance the U.S.-Korea FTA as well. The two senators acknowledged that other trade initiatives such as the Colombia and Panama FTAs “will likely be next in line for Congressional consideration” and that “there is further work to be done” before Congress can approve the Korea FTA, including on the issues of market access for U.S. beef and automobiles. Nevertheless, the letter said, the “potential rewards” of an agreement with the United States’ seventh-largest trading partner demand that work to implement this pact “begin … without delay and persist as long as necessary.”
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