Portman Says Trade Negotiators in Conference 'at Loggerheads'

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said that he wants to get the conference negotiations done for the China package, because the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) has "some important trade aspects."

"We want to get to yes," he said of Republicans in the Senate. However, Portman said the trade negotiations are probably the most difficult of all the negotiations going on. That distance between House Democrats' positions and the Senate bill has led to chatter that the trade title might get left behind so something can be finished (see 2205310033). Portman said, "On the trade side, we find ourselves at loggerheads. One of the reasons is the Democrats in the House added to the bill not just Trade Adjustment Assistance, but also expanded it. Extending it is one thing, but expanding it takes it to a place where I think very few, if any, Republicans could support it."

Portman said he may have a proposal that could break the logjam. He proposed taking TAA out of the China package, and writing legislation that would renew it as the program currently exists and pair that language with a trade promotion authority narrowly tailored to the possibility of a U.S.-U.K. trade agreement. Negotiations to liberalize trade between the two countries began during the Trump administration; the U.K. still wants a deal, but the U.S. trade representative says she'd rather have coordination on immediate issues than a full free trade agreement. Portman said, "We're probably four-fifths of the way toward the agreement." Before Portman was a senator, he served as a USTR.

"We have always combined trade adjustment assistance with … trade promotion authority," Portman noted. He said he intends to introduce legislation that would pair "very limited TPA" with TAA renewal.

Portman and co-sponsor Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., were invited to speak about a bill that would endorse plurilateral agreements at the World Trade Organization that would not allow free riders.

Coons said the trade debate in Delaware used to be about the threat of imported cars from low-wage countries to Delaware's now closed General Motors plant and the ability to export more chickens raised in the state. He said that now trade policy ought to be about "strengthening our partnerships that will provide incentives for decarbonizing the industrial sector" without disadvantaging U.S. production. He said that the EU, Canada and the U.K. have similar climate ambition and should work on these standards. The EU, the U.K., Japan and the U.S. are working on a clean steel and aluminum standard that could erect barriers to countries exporting metal produced with higher carbon intensity into those markets.

Coons said June 17 that the WTO limped out of the latest ministerial conference, and he said the body needs "to show some vitality and some relevance." So their bill would give the administration TPA for plurilateral deals in Geneva. Portman said this could achieve more than tariff elimination on environmental goods, a stalled negotiation from the last decade, but could also help countries to keep out imports of steel, aluminum, cement, chemicals, paper and shipbuilding that are the result of uneconomic overcapacity through state-owned enterprises or what he called "excessive subsidies."

The moderator asked Coons whether the administration will roll back some of the Section 301 tariffs. Portman interjected that he opposes that, but does support the possibility of exclusions for products that are not made in America.

Coons said tariff reduction is one of the few things the executive branch can do unilaterally to try to bring down inflation. Of the Section 301 tariffs, he said, "Some of them are strategic and significant and some are just imposing needless costs." He said that tariffs on bicycles and toasters "are not likely to restore American manufacturing in those areas."

Bicycles and bicycle components are already receiving an exclusion from the tariffs through the end of this year; the trade group representing the industry said it needs longer term certainty.

Coons said that while the administration does want to use its tariff leverage to try and get concessions from China, he said he "wouldn't be surprised to see some tariff reduction that will have direct benefits for consumer pricing."