Thread: Exclusive: A leaked Trump bill to blow up the WTO

Exclusive: A leaked Trump bill to blow up the WTO

Jonathan Swan
11 hours ago

Axios has obtained a leaked draft of a Trump administration bill — ordered by the president himself — that would declare America’s abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization rules.

Why it matters: The draft legislation is stunning. The bill essentially provides Trump a license to raise U.S. tariffs at will, without congressional consent and international rules be damned.

The details: The bill, titled the "United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act," would give Trump unilateral power to ignore the two most basic principles of the WTO and negotiate one-on-one with any country:

The "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) principle that countries can't set different tariff rates for different countries outside of free trade agreements;

"Bound tariff rates" — the tariff ceilings that each WTO country has already agreed to in previous negotiations.

"It would be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal," said a source familiar with the bill.

"The good news is Congress would never give this authority to the president," the source added, describing the bill as "insane."

"It's not implementable at the border," given it would create potentially tens of thousands of new tariff rates on products. "And it would completely remove us from the set of global trade rules."

Behind the scenes: Trump was briefed on this draft in late May, according to sources familiar with the situation. Most officials involved in the bill's drafting — with the notable exception of hardline trade adviser Peter Navarro — think the bill is unrealistic or unworkable. USTR, Commerce and the White House are involved.

In a White House meeting to discuss the bill earlier this year, Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short bluntly told Navarro the bill was "dead on arrival" and would receive zero support on Capitol Hill, according to sources familiar with the exchange.

Navarro replied to Short that he thought the bill would get plenty of support, particularly from Democrats, but Short told Navarro he didn't think Democrats were in much of a mood to hand over moreauthority to Trump.

White House response: Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said, "It is no secret that POTUS has had frustrations with the unfair imbalance of tariffs that put the U.S. at a disadvantage. He has asked his team to develop ideas to remedy this situation and create incentives for countries to lower their tariffs. The current system gives the U.S. no leverage and other countries no incentive."

But Walters signaled that we shouldn't take this bill as anything like a done deal. "The only way this would be news is if this were actual legislation that the administration was preparing to rollout, but it’s not," she said. "Principals have not even met to review any text of legislation on reciprocal trade."
Between the lines: Note the specificity of Walters' quote above. Trump directly requested this legislation and was verbally briefed on it in May. But he hasn't met with the principals to review the text.

Be smart: Congress is already concerned with how Trump has been using his trade authorities — just look at recent efforts by Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Pat Toomey and Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet to roll back the president's steel and aluminum tariffs.

The bottom line: As a smart trade watcher told me: "The Trump administration should be more worried about not having their current authority restricted rather than expanding authority as this bill would do."

Read the full text of the draft bill (Axios retyped the leaked document to protect our source):

(click on the link for text of the draft bill (it won't copy and paste)

https://www.axios.com/trump-trade-wa...76f4e0f83.html

"It would be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal," said a source familiar with the bill.

"The good news is Congress would never give this authority to the president," the source added, describing the bill as "insane."

I think it's beautiful!

WTO SUCKS!!!

Trump slams 'underspending' NATO allies ahead of key summit, warns WTO: 'We will be doing something'

By Gregg Re
5 hours ago

President Trump on Monday warned that "we will be doing something" if the World Trade Organization doesn't start treating the U.S. "properly," amid reports that the White House is seeking more flexibility to impose unilateral tariffs.

The president's Oval Office comments came the same day it was revealed that Trump had slammed "underspending" NATO allies, including Germany, Norway, and Canada, in harshly worded letters issued last month.

The missives complained of "growing frustration in the United States that some allies have not stepped up as promised," The New York Times reported. Trump has said repeatedly that NATO allies have not lived up to their commitments to pay more toward defense spending.

The two developments essentially served as a one-two punch from the White House ahead of next week's NATO summit in Brussels, followed by a scheduled summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is certain to draw global attention.

But Trump again denied plans of a formal U.S. withdrawal from the WTO, even as he told reporters Monday that the trade organization needed to change its ways.

The comments came as he conferred with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on trade and security.

Trump said the WTO has treated the U.S. "very badly, and I hope they change their ways." He said he wasn't "planning anything now" but if the WTO didn't treat the U.S. properly, "we will be doing something."

Reports Monday suggested that the White House had prepared a draft bill dubbed the "United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act" -- which critics quickly dubbed the "FART" bill.

The draft bill would afford Trump more authority to impose tariffs on his own, without approval from Congress and in violation of current WTO rules.

American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin on the mounting trade tensions and the outlook for the U.S. economy.

Both Canada and the European Union are taking the U.S. to the WTO's "trade court" over Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.

The organization's official dispute-resolution body has handed the U.S. losses in nearly 75 percent of cases brought by other countries, according to a Bloomberg analysis. On the other hand, the U.S. wins nearly 90 percent of cases it brings, Bloomberg found.

The White House has maintained that its sweeping tariffs have been necessary to protect U.S. industry and national security -- concerns that are increasingly front-and-center in Europe as well.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who often has sparred with President Trump, on Monday dramatically reversed course on her permissive immigration policies, pledging to tighten asylum rules under intense domestic pressure.

Merkel and her rebellious Bavarian allies reached a last-minute compromise to end a dispute over managing immigration that threatened to bring down her coalition government.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, leader of Merkel's Bavarian-only sister party, emerged from talks late Monday saying the compromise will "prevent the illegal immigration on the border between Germany and Austria."

At the G7 summit last month, Trump reportedly tossed Starburst candies at Merkel, who was famously close with former President Obama.

"He stood up, he put his hand in his pocket and he took two candies out, threw them on the table and said: 'here, Angela, don’t say I never give you anything,'" consultant Ian Bremmer told CBS News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...something.html