Former USTR Encourages More US Trade Agreements, Engagement

The U.S. faces the challenge of "convincing ourselves that it's worth getting back into the game" of negotiating trade agreements that lower tariffs, rather than convincing other countries to do the same, former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said during a June 28 webinar. "Without the U.S. leading, it's difficult to see expansions of trade," he said, adding that the U.S. is currently seen as uninterested in promoting trade through reducing tariffs.

The traditional approach of exchanging market access had largely been lost in recent years, Portman said, pointing to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. IPEF could be successful, but the lack of market access means it doesn't have any teeth right now, he said during the webinar hosted by Flexport. Partner countries aren't really getting anything as it stands, he said. Portman, also a former U.S. trade representative, pointed to several potential partners he believes would have bipartisan support for free trade agreements, including Ecuador, Kenya, the U.K. and Taiwan.

The Republican largely blamed the lack of progress on the Biden administration. "They just don't want to do it" because of a few lingering issues like agricultural exports, he said. Portman said that he had hopes that USMCA will be a template for future agreements that have not yet happened, like the stalled U.K. and Japan agreements.

Taiwan in particular recently sparked a fight over trade authority, with the House passing legislation that would give it more oversight of future deals (see 2306220027). Portman said it is ironic that the U.S. is having trouble pushing trade agreements forward so soon after the "very successful bipartisan process" of USMCA negotiation and passage, adding that he was hopeful after the 2020 deal.

He said that Congress has become more discerning over time about what it wants out of trade agreements and that trade promotion authority with up or down votes would be more productive than haggling between individual members. Just because the administration won't propose TPA, he encouraged Congress to "do it on its own" and to come up with TPA themselves and see what the administration does, he said.