Washington Insider -- Thursday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Obama Considering Greater Use of Executive Actions

With the White House facing a more-or-less unified block of Republican opposition now that the GOP controls both the House and the Senate, the administration reportedly is planning new executive actions and regulations over the next two years to finalize President Obama's signature laws overhauling the health-care and financial industries.

"[O]ver the course of the next two years, the president will look for ways to use his executive authority to benefit middle-class families," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House.

On the president's agenda: executive action on immigration; investments in infrastructure and early-childhood education; implementation of the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and additional executive actions on climate change.

Whether the president will be able to convince anyone of either party on Capitol Hill to work with him remains to be seen. But should he find congressional support to be lacking, the clear sign is that the president is willing to work unilaterally over the final two years of his administration to achieve his agenda.

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China to Propose Competing Trade Agreement for Asia-Pacific Region

China may unveil a proposal to establish an Asia-Pacific free-trade zone at this weekend's meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) heads of state in Beijing. Chinese officials have indicated that their proposal likely will be of interest to all 21 APEC member nations, not just to the 12 countries currently negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. (All 12 TPP countries also are APEC members.)

It is widely expected that TTP discussions will take place on the sidelines of the APEC conference that is scheduled for Nov. 9 and 10, meetings that President Obama plans to attend.

China reportedly is promoting an Asia-Pacific free trade deal to counterbalance the proposed TPP, which doesn't include APEC members China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia or Thailand. The TPP talks, which involve the Australia, Japan, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, is a key item on the Obama administration's trade agenda.

China first proposed its plan for a regional free-trade zone in 2006, a proposal that has gone nowhere since then. U.S. participation in the TTP discussions began in 2008, and several nations have joined the negotiations since then. Those talks also are bogged down, largely due to continuing disagreements between the United States and Japan and by domestic politics in both countries.

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Washington Insider: GMO Referenda

At the same time voters were turning toward Republicans in Tuesday's elections, they also were rejecting biotech labeling measures in Colorado and possibly in Oregon.

Supporters of consumers' "Right to Know" campaigns in Colorado and Oregon said it should be mandatory that food companies and manufacturers place information on the package about whether any of the ingredients were made with transgenic crops.

Critics countered with arguments that it was never clear what it was that consumers were supposed to know and that the labeling measures arbitrarily exempted some foods. They also complained that the measures would force food producers to change labels and packaging or reformulate their products with non-GMO or organic ingredients and that all that could be expected to increase food costs significantly.

A coalition of groups supported the measures in both states including Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and the Center for Food Safety Action Fund. Supporters raised around $9 million to get voters to back the measure in Colorado, but opponents outspent them by more than 2 to 1 and the measure went down by a margin of more than 2-1.

Oregon's GMO labeling fight was much closer, and came down to the wire. It seemed likely to pass through most of the evening. But by early yesterday morning the Oregon Secretary of State's website said it was defeated by 23,234 votes out of nearly 1.28 million cast. Supporters were still claiming that additional ballots were left to be counted and could sway the outcome, but that seems increasingly unlikely.

Press reports now indicate that while more than half of U.S. states have contemplated mandatory GMO labels, the one closest to actually implementing such requirements is Vermont and that law, approved this year, still faces legal challenges and is not slated to take effect until 2016.

In virtually every report on this issue, the urban press suggests that the "large companies" involved essentially bought the outcome they desired. At the same time, they tend to gloss over the deeper issues involved, including the potential effect on food prices, the lack of any evidence of health benefits and, the proposed laws arbitrary exclusions.

Clearly, this fight is far from over and can be expected to continue in future elections. At the same time, it is fair to note that the current state of play likely is far different than labeling advocates expected when it was begun several years ago, Washington Insider believes.

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