The deadline for the U.S. to negotiate bilateral trade deals with the U.K. and Kenya under rules for streamlined Congressional approval has expired. Technically, current Trade Promotion Authority allowing up-or-down votes on trade deals with no amendments, expires June 30th. But American Farm Bureau trade advisor Dave Salmonsen said the actual deadline has already come and gone.

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“There’s a 90-day notice requirement to Congress, if the administration's going to submit a trade agreement. So, they would have had to have anything to Congress by April 1. Well, of course, nothing has been sent."

Congress could extend the deadline, but Salmonsen said that would likely take having a deal, in hand.

"Ultimately, though, at some point, the Congress usually wants to write a new TPA law, change some of the negotiating objectives, add some features, but that takes the Congress and the administration working together.”

And the last TPA push came during the Obama Administration, during ongoing Transpacific Partnership and EU talks. Salmonsen said Farm Bureau is pushing for talks with London and Brussels and to get a new TPA done, adding the hard part of the process is starting those conversations.

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