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Details: The bill, entitled "United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act," would give Trump the unilateral power to ignore the two most fundamental principles of the United States. WTO and to negotiate one-on-one with any country:
- Principle of the "most favored nation" (MFN) according to which countries can not set different tariff rates for different countries outside free trade agreements;
- "bound tariff rate"] had already accepted in previous negotiations
"It would be the equivalent of moving away from the WTO and our commitments there without notifying our withdrawal, "said a source close to the bill. 19659005] "The good news is that the Congress will never give this authority to the president," the source added, calling the project "crazy".
Behind the Scenes: Trump was briefed on this project in late May, according to sources close to the situation. Most of the officials involved in drafting the bill – with the notable exception of Foreign Trade Adviser Peter Navarro – think the bill is unrealistic or impractical. The USTR, Commerce and the White House are involved
- At a White House meeting to discuss the bill earlier this year, the Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short bluntly said to Navarro that the bill was "dead on arrival". Navarro responded to Short that he thought the bill would receive a lot of support, especially from the Democrats, but Short told Navarro that he did not think the Democrats were dead.
White House Response: Spokesperson Lindsay Walters said: "It's no secret that POTUS was frustrated by the unfair imbalance of tariffs that disadvantaged the states. He asked his team to develop ideas to remedy this situation and create incentives for countries to lower their tariffs.The current system gives no leverage to the United States and no other country has a problem. encourages. "
- Do not consider this bill an agreement. "The only way this would be new is that it is legislation that the administration is preparing to deploy, but that is not the case," he said. she says. "The directors did not even meet to discuss a piece of reciprocal trade law."
- Between the lines: Note the specificity of the Walters quote above. Trump directly asked for this bill and was verbally informed in May. But he did not meet the directors to review the text.
- Be Smart: The Congress is already concerned about how Trump used his commercial authorities – just look at the recent efforts of Republicans Bob Corker and Pat Toomey and Democratic Senator Michael Bennet at
- In summary, an enlightened observer told me: "The Trump administration should be more worried about not seeing its current powers restricted rather than extending its authority to
Read the full text of the bill (Axios retouched the leaked document to protect our source):
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