FTA's On The Mat

Free Trade On The Mat. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The game of free trade agreements seems to be on the mat. Many political observers and even some players are questioning whether or not these three trade deals can ever be completed. A take-it-or-leave-it deal from the White House on free trade agreements could spell trouble for the FTAs that are now reaching a critical juncture in their long history. It’s down to decision time for the Colombia, Panama and South Korea free trade deals - worth billions for U.S. agriculture. Yet former USDA Trade Adviser Paul Drazek says there’s no White House-Hill GOP deal on attaching expensive aid for trade-displaced workers to the Korea FTA.

DRAZEK: So it sounds to me like the administrations getting ready to just go ahead and send the three free trade agreements implementing bills forward with TAA attached to the Korea one.

But Drazek says the take-it-or-leave-it approach on FTAs with Trade Adjustment Assistance opposed by Republicans in the Korea bill could backfire - with House Republicans ditching Korea and sending the Senate just Panama and Colombia.

DRAZEK:  But the senators said that the Democrats in the Senate have control and they aren’t going to want to vote on two of the agreements without knowing if the TAA is going to be included at some point and approved so my guess is that they would all vote against the other two when we wouldn’t have any of the three agreements get through.
 
Drazek says without TAA - the President and Senate Democrats would have no political cover with their union allies. Bottom line - he says - no fig leaf, no deal - even as the clock ticks down to the August recess. A crowded fall calendar clouds FTA prospects even further.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Manager of Legislative Affairs Kent Bacus discusses the time left until the early or mid-August recess - subtracting a couple of weeks to deal with the debt crisis.

BACUS: We’re looking at a couple of weeks at the most which is a very, very small window when you are talking about moving stuff on Capital Hill so I think if they failed to get anything done before the August recess, they could put the fate of these FTA’s in severe jeopardy because when you get into the fall they still have all the spending bills they have to take care of and you’re getting into the election season.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.