Trade bills must pass Congress

Three votes yet to be taken in Congress — two in the House and one in the Senate — will have a significant impact on jobs and the economy in Washington state and for the rest of the nation.

And both are meeting resistance from a bipartisan coalition in both chambers of Congress suspicious of business. Those suspicious aren’t always without merit, except in the case of the two pieces of legislation involved here: renewal of Trade Promotion Authority for the president and the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.

Both are important for the country and for Washington state, whose economy is heavily dependent on trade as we seek markets for our planes, software, wine, apples and more. Exports in the state totaled $91 billion in 2014, and 4 in 10 jobs in the state are tied to trade.

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In the past, both Trade Promotion Authority and the Ex-Im Bank have faced little opposition in Congress. Trade authority, which allows the president to negotiate trade pacts before bringing them back to Congress for an up-or-down vote, was a power granted every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. Likewise, the Export-Import Bank, which promotes exports by financing foreign purchases of U.S.-made goods, was first created in 1934 and has been reauthorized 16 times since then with little opposition. The bank, which is self-supporting, actually generated $675 million in returns to taxpayers last year, as noted by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.

But time is running out on both. Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership among the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations are expected to conclude this summer or fall, and the trade authority bill is crucial to making those deals final. The deadline for the Ex-Im back is even shorter; its authorization runs out June 30.

The Senate earlier this spring passed the Trade Promotion Authority bill. A supporter, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., deftly held back her vote until she had assurances from Senate Republican leadership that they would bring a vote on the Export-Import Bank to the floor.

But both pieces of legislation appear to face greater opposition in the House, specifically from Democrats who have confused the Trans-Pacific pacts with the Clinton-era NAFTA deal, and tea party Republicans eager to deny President Obama any victory, even as they cut off the jobs in front of their nose to spite their face.

Voices on each side have been critical of those in their own camps. On the right, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer has called for Republicans to back the trade bill or risk losing Pacific Rim markets to China. From the left, columnist Froma Harrop notes that NAFTA hasn’t resulted in goods from Mexico flooding American markets, but you will find plenty of tags that say “Made in China.”

For all the talk about creating jobs and building the economy, some members of Congress are taking a maddeningly obstructionist position.

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