Washington Insider--Wednesday

By DTN's Washington Insider

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

White House Continues Efforts to Secure Infrastructure Funding

The Obama administration is continuing to lobby Congress to provide additional funding for infrastructure projects that not only would cover transportation needs but also water treatment facilities. Earlier this week, Undersecretary of Transportation Peter Rogoff urged Congress to back a surface transportation reauthorization proposal that seeks $478 billion in funding over the next six years to improve the nation's roads, bridges, transit systems and railways.

Rogoff said his department is "very concerned at the current moment that many of our partners in Congress are looking to undershoot the target," and instead freeze funding for the next six years, which "won't even allow us to maintain the infrastructure that we have."

"We're not asking for increased funding just because we lack infrastructure investment," he said. "We're asking for dramatically increased funding and improved policies because that's what our economy is going to need going forward." Rogoff said issues such as worsening congestion and increasingly unreliable transit services could drag down the economy.

To date, Congress has shown an interest in infrastructure construction, repair and maintenance, but members remain divided on the source of new revenue to pay for such projects. With Republicans in control of both houses, it is unlikely that Congress will turn to increased taxes to support the nation's transportation needs. Therefore, the so far unsuccessful search for a half-trillion-dollar pot of money continues.

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USTR Defends FOIA Decisions Regarding Trade Negotiation Details

The Obama administration says it is justified in withholding documents related to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions to preserve the confidentiality of ongoing negotiations

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative made the claim in response to a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit news service Intellectual Property Watch (IP Watch). In 2012, IP Watch filed FOIA requests seeking TPP negotiating documents and draft texts of provisions affecting intellectual property rights. According to the IP-Watch complaint, USTR refused to disclose almost all of the requested records, claiming that under FOIA, those documents were exempt from disclosure.

IP Watch is not the only one arguing for greater transparency in the trade negotiations. Labor unions and environmental organizations, as well as some members of Congress have complained about the alleged secrecy of the negotiations. For its part, USTR says the talks are the most transparent and consultative of any U.S. trade agreement in history.

Two years ago the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that USTR properly withheld disclosure of a Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiating document under a Freedom of Information Act exemption. If the district court hearing the IP Watch case uses the earlier ruling as a precedent, the administration likely will be able to conduct trade negotiations without being required to disclose details to outsiders while the discussions were continuing.

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Washington Insider: White House Trade Policy Agenda

Although there is still some quiet talk among trade experts regarding possible accomplishments in the World Trade Organization's Doha Round later this year, the new White House Trade Policy Agenda for 2015 keeps its emphasis pretty squarely on regional deals. And, it argues that these will ultimately benefit the U.S. middle class.

In this effort, the president also emphasizes that the current agenda involves enormous amounts of economic activity.

"Through our trade agenda, we are seeking to put the United States at the center of a trade zone covering nearly two-thirds of the global economy," the trade agenda report says, referring especially to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) being discussed with 11 other Pacific Rim nations. "That would help make America the world's production platform of choice, increasing U.S. exports and attracting more employers that want to invest in the United States, hire American workers, and sell American goods and services to the world," the report predicts.

In this effort, the president says the administration views the TPP as "integral" to the U.S. rebalance to Asia, seeing it as the way it can help "set the rules of the road in an important and dynamic region."

Clearly stung by lingering criticism of his trade policy, both for being late in his push for "fast track" trade authority and by the opposition of many Democrats to new trade agreements of almost any kind, attempts to play the "middle class" card while he claims his "ambitious" agenda can move the United States into the global lead on trade and its effort to "level the playing field for our workers and businesses."

In that effort, the administration views the TPP as central — despite criticism that it could lead to more U.S. jobs exported overseas, according to the agenda. "The question we face is not whether we can roll back the tide of globalization. It is whether we are going to shape it or be shaped by it, whether we are going to do everything we can to ensure that it reflects our interest and our values — or to let other countries define it for us."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is the lead agency responsible for the Trade Policy Agenda, which is produced annually. The recent release also laid out the president's continued support for completing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the European Union, and the expectation of "significant progress" in 2015 — a goal few expect will be reached, largely since the EU appears to be solidly committed to its high protectionist barriers and its unworkable social constraints on broad swaths of technology.

The administration also committed itself in several other areas, including the advance of negotiations on the Trade in Services Agreement, work with Congress to update and renew the African Growth and Opportunities Act "for the longest term possible," and, continued strengthening of the multilateral trading system at the WTO.

Perhaps the most immediate objective is bipartisan passage of trade promotion authority, which the president needs to ensure enactment of the regional agreements. The agenda calls the TPA — which commits the Congress to an up-or-down vote on trade agreements — a "critical tool for Congress to update and assert its role in trade policy and to guide current and future negotiations."

What it doesn't need to say is that this issue involves a nearly all-out political war with many of his Democratic core supporters working hard to block that effort. While the administration appears to have pulled out most of the stops in this push recently, the outcome of the fight still seems in doubt.

Overall, the White House trade agenda seems reasonably ambitious, but faces continued difficulty, especially in efforts to build agreement with developing countries to more open markets. As a result, and since the Europeans have yet to seriously commit to serious negotiations, it is important to note how many chips are actually being placed on the TPP.

It has been argued all along that the Pacific with its major and minor players appears to be where the most promising growth markets are and will remain for the foreseeable future. So, the president appears right in his suggestion that U.S. hopes for strong trade growth are strongest in the Pacific Region, especially over the longer term, Washington Insider believes.

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(GH/CZ)

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