By Ankit Panda
Bipartisan legislation granting the U.S. president trade promotion authority was introduced on Thursday. Will it save the TPP?
Ending months of uncertainty over the future of the economic leg of the U.S. rebalance to Asia, U.S. congressional leaders agreed on Thursday evening to open the way for President Barack Obama to take the lead on negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on a “fast track.” The U.S. Senate’s Finance Committee introduced bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority legislation, known as the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA-2015), that sets a range of constraints within which the president must pursue a final TPP agreement, but unencumbers the executive branch from any congressional interference before a final deal is reached with the assent of the 11 other nations involved in the negotiating process–a group comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, in addition to the United States. TPA-2015 will affect future U.S. administrations and sets a general set of principles for all trade negotiations carried out by the executive branch, not just the TPP and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
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