Thread: Portman opts for the power of persuasion

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e6022d2e-2614- ... 511c8.html

Portman opts for the power of persuasion
By Alan Beattie and Edward Alden
Published: September 15 2005 22:01 | Last updated: September 15 2005 22:01

Rob PortmanTwo trade officials with fractious domestic constituencies to placate met in Washington this week and revealed that neither envied the other’s job.
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When Rob Portman, US trade representative, praised the progress made by the European Commission in reforming farm subsidies against some strong internal opposition, his European counterpart Peter Mandelson said: “You can happily look after the 25 member states.� Mr Portman shot back: “I’ll send you to Congress.�

Mr Mandelson’s difficulties getting some European Union governments to back his liberalising vision for world trade are well known. But Mr Portman, the former Ohio congressman appointed to the job in May, faces an equally challenging task: to re-establish broad support for free trade in a Congress riven by party divisions and deeply suspicious of pushing forward on trade in the face of a huge trade deficit and popular anger over what is seen as unfair competition.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (Cafta) passed by just two votes in the House of Representatives in July, with only 15 Democrats in favour; the vote in 2001 to give President George W. Bush “fast-track� authority to negotiate trade deals won by a single vote.

Now, Mr Portman has to negotiate a global trade deal under the Doha round of talks and carry Congress with him. “Part of my job as I see it is to rebuild the one-time bipartisan consensus on trade,� he says. “It’s been slipping for a number of years.�

If anyone can reach across the party divide it is likely to be Mr Portman. Soft-spoken and impeccably polite, he defied the increasingly partisan atmosphere in the House to team up with Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, for much-admired work on pension reform.

While Mr Cardin voted against Cafta and calls the deal a backward step on issues such as labour rights, he and Mr Portman are now working closely to try to find common ground on trade.

“If you’re going to have a successful round, it will only be if the traditional supporters of trade are behind it,� says Mr Cardin, now the top Democrat on trade issues in the House.

Mr Portman thinks the opposition to trade liberalisation on Capitol Hill can be overcome. “I don’t think it is very deep seated,� he says. “There are some members who think protectionism is a better way to go. But for a lot of members it is frustration with a lack of consultation.�

Gaining such trust will not be easy. Mr Cardin insists that Democrats, and many Republicans, will not tolerate any weakening of US laws that are used to block imports deemed unfairly traded. “Portman knows he will pay a heavy price in Congress if he agrees to a weakening of trade rules,� Mr Cardin says.

But Mr Portman this week penned a harsh letter opposing a Democratic-sponsored Senate amendment, set to be voted on on Thursday, that would prevent him from negotiating any change to global trade rules governing the US’s ability to block unfairly traded imports. While insisting he would not weaken such laws, “to tie my hands and say we can’t talk even about trade remedy laws is not in our interest�.

He will face similar difficulties in the Doha talks persuading America’s agricultural lobby to give up some of its subsidies in return for access to foreign markets. “We have to prove to the farm community that we are serious about market access,� he says.

The crucial step will be winning concessions on farm tariff cuts from the Europeans.

After months of stand-offs and generalities, this week he and Mr Mandelson engaged in lengthy talks in Washington trying to put numbers on a formula that would see higher tariffs cut by more than lower ones. Serious differences remain, such as the European desire to protect certain farm products from tariff cuts within the overall formula and to exclude others from any cuts at all. “They have sensitive products; we have a need for overall market access,� he says.

But while the higher European farm protection raise hackles on Capitol Hill, Mr Portman praises the difficult concessions the EU has made so far. “I actually think the EU is now working with us in a constructive way,� he says.

Overall, Mr Portman has adopted a less confrontational style than his predecessor, Robert Zoellick, though that may be tested as the key World Trade Organisation ministerial in Hong Kong in December draws near.

One small sign of the new approach: he has dropped Mr Zoellick’s formula of “competitive liberalisation� – in which bilateral and regional trade deals were seen as pressing countries to make concessions in the Doha talks – for the more co-operative phrase “parallel liberalisation�.

On Mr Portman’s desk stands a bust of Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican president whose daughter married another Ohio congressman. His famous maxim – “speak softly and carry a big stick� – will be tested by the new US trade representative in the run-up to Hong Kong.

But Mr Portman this week penned a harsh letter opposing a Democratic-sponsored Senate amendment, set to be voted on on Thursday, that would prevent him from negotiating any change to global trade rules governing the US’s ability to block unfairly traded imports. While insisting he would not weaken such laws, “to tie my hands and say we can’t talk even about trade remedy laws is not in our interest�.

Anyone know what this amendment is?