Democrats, Republicans Push Administration For Additional Trade Deals

The Biden Administration and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai have come under fire from lawmakers of both parties in Congress for not pursuing free trade agreements. Washington’s Maria Cantwell, member of the Senate Finance Committee, told Ambassador Tai that farmers in the Evergreen state want free trade deals.

“They want to know that we are fighting to increase market access. When you think about wheat, when you think about potatoes, when you think about some of these other products, it’s more than 70% of the product is an export market.”

“We’ve got nations in the Indo-Pacific who are crying out for free trade negotiations with us so that they can strengthen their relationship to us economically, rather than being tied to China," said top Finance Republican, Idaho’s Mike Crapo.

But pressed repeatedly on the lack of Free Trade Agreements, such as as CPTPP in the Administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Tai switched from claiming some wins on tariff cuts to revealing a more political trade motive.

“Our traditional trade models and traditional FTAs have led us to a place where we are facing a considerable backlash that we are listening to, from our own people, about concerns regarding the offshoring and outsourcing of American jobs and opportunities through these types of arrangements.”

Tai went on to say recent FTAs have been “so big and so uneven in terms of the wins and losses that they have collapsed under their own weight.” 

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