Business begins push for post-Bush trade deals

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post/Reuters

Business begins push for post-Bush trade deals

By Doug Palmer
Reuters
Thursday, July 10, 2008; 5:03 PM



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. business group outlined a plan on Thursday to restore White House trade negotiating authority that was badly damaged in a fight between President George W. Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a free trade pact with Colombia.

Regardless of who wins November's presidential election, "the new Congress and the new administration will have to have a trade policy and will have to grapple with what to do about the process for negotiating trade agreements," said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council.

The group, whose members include Boeing, Caterpillar, General Electric, Microsoft and other major U.S. employers, hopes its draft bill will help shape the outcome of an expected congressional trade debate in 2009.

The proposal, crafted with help from former Democratic and Republican aides on the Senate Finance Committee, must be introduced by a member of Congress to have a chance at becoming law. Reinsh said the NFTC would not seek a congressional sponsor to introduce it until next year.

A main provision would create a new congressional joint committee on trade with the power to block the White House from negotiating bilateral free trade deals like those Bush has aggressively pursued.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071002135.html

[Vincardog]

1. Does anyone remember the Constitution? It gives Congress the responsibility of negotiating trade

[IDemo]

2. "post-Bush"

I'm going to like reading more and more headlines with that phrase over the next several months. :)

[Judi Lynn]

6. You've got company. I had the same thought. It looks good, doesn't it? n/t

[bluesmail]

3. What's changing here is not the status quo but the expiring

of FastTrack, (and fast they must be). Looking ahead (chess) to prepare for eventual outcomes that will effect BigBusiness for decades.

[Indenturedebtor]

4. Bah these roaches are just afraid that a Dem Pres will curtail their outsourcing and welfare payment

Oh now that Bush is leaving we better make sure that we can bribe Congress so nothing gets in the way of gutting America.

[PSPS]

5. Why are private trade groups drafting legislation?