Tom Vilsack fears the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will collapse if approval is stalled by onerous amendments
PHOENIX, Ariz. — The U.S. agriculture secretary is urging farmers to phone their members of Congress to push for passage of a trade promotion authority bill.
“I’m asking today for you to get engaged,” Tom Vilsack told the more than 7,700 growers attending the 2015 Commodity Classic.
“I’m asking you today to help us convince this country that it’s in our economic and national security interests to get these trade agreements through.”
Trade promotion authority, which is also known as fast track authority, would allow U.S. negotiators to negotiate a trade pact that Congress can vote yes or no but can’t amend.
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The last fast track legislation lapsed in 2007, which has made approving free trade agreements more onerous because they are subject to amendment by 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate.
Vilsack isn’t alone in his plea for trade promotion authority. Eight previous secretaries of agriculture signed a letter last week urging Congress to reinstate the powerful tool for trade negotiators.
“Every living secretary since president (Jimmy) Carter was on that letter,” said Vilsack.
“In that letter, they essentially said to Congress, ‘look, this is pretty doggone important.’ ”
It’s because 30 percent of all U.S. agricultural sales are exports. The dollar value of those exports amounts to total net farm income every year.
Vilsack wants fast track authority in place in time to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement be-cause the countries in that agreement account for one-third of global agricultural trade.
There are 525 million middle class people in Asia. That is expected to grow to more than 3.2 billion in 15 years, which would be the equivalent of adding eight markets the size of the United States.
There is a danger the TPP negotiations could collapse if the deal stalls in Congress. In the meantime, China is attempting to convince its neighbors to sign an all-Asia trade agreement.
“If we’re going to get TPP and open up this enormous opportunity to balance the Chinese influence in Asia, we have to get to work on trade promotion authority,” said Vilsack.
When he asked one senator why he was opposed to the idea, the senator replied, “I’ll just give you two numbers — the number 1,200 and the number two.”
He received 1,200 calls that week from voters opposed to trade promotion authority and only two in favour of it.
Vilsack said that is why he needs farmers to sway their members of Congress.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but it’s not easy to get Congress to agree on hardly anything these days,” he said.
Vilsack has the full support of the American Soybean Association, which represents the country’s top agriculture export commodity.
The association recognizes it is cumbersome to negotiate a deal without fast track authority.
“It’s like running every decision you make on your farm through everybody else in your county,” said association spokesperson Patrick Delaney.
He is confident this is one of the few issues where there could be agreement in Congress.
“It really is something that we think is an easier lift than a lot of pieces of legislation in Washington,” said Delaney.
There is opposition on the far left from supporters of the fair trade movement and on the far right from politicians opposed to anything president Barack Obama supports.
As a result, the focus will be on the more moderate members of the Republican and Democratic parties.
“This is another one of those issues that we’re going to try to move down the middle,” he said.
Some members of Congress have suggested fast track authority re-moves some of the transparency associated with trade deals, but Vilsack said they all have access to every line of the agreement as it is being negotiated.
