After a two year pause on trade, the Obama administration informed congressional leaders Wednesday that it's ready to negotiate legislation to implement free trade agreements already reached with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
In separate letters to the chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, which oversee trade treaties, the administration said that it had addressed congressional concerns in direct talks with Colombia and was ready to proceed with the deals.
The administration expects on Thursday to provide Congress with working drafts of implementing language and commitments for administrative actions, senior White House officials said.
The feedback Congress provides on these drafts will lead to formal legislation that the administration must eventually submit to Congress for up or down votes without amendments.
"We hope our discussions to review these documents, and similar documents for the Korea and Panama agreements, can commence without delay so that we can work together to bring the benefits of this agreement home to American businesses, farmers, ranchers and workers," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk wrote to the chairmen.
Deals reached last year with South Korea and this year with Panama have languished as Kirk secured a series of "milestones" that Colombia had to commit to in order for a deal to go forward.
These include hiring more labor inspectors and reforming its criminal code to impose penalties on companies that interfere with labor's efforts to organize and bargain collectively.
Colombia must meet other commitments by June 15.
The action plan allows Congress to pass a trade pact whose actual implementation could be delayed until conditions are met.
Several key lawmakers committed Wednesday to move the trade deals quickly, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., whose job it is to round up votes from his party.
"The great news is that these negotiations are going to be about relatively minor questions of staging and sequence. When you have Speaker Boehner, Democratic Whip Hoyer and the White House all singing from the same song sheet, it gets your attention," John Murphy, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president for international policy, said in an interview.
"We're optimistic that there is a grand bargain ... that we could see enacted in the next few weeks."
Murphy referred not only to passage of the three trade deals, but also to the continuation of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which gives preferential access to the U.S. market to Colombia and Ecuador, and to the Generalized System of Preferences, which grants favored market access to poorer nations.
A third leg of the grand bargain involves providing trade adjustment assistance to help U.S. workers displaced by international trade.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama was cool to new trade agreements, a nod to unions that say foreign manufacturers gain from them at the expense of U.S. workers.
After taking office, Obama effectively adopted the pause on trade promised by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state.
For two years, business groups have clamored for action on trade deals, arguing that Europe, Canada and others are moving ahead with Colombia to the disadvantage of U.S. exporters.
In separate letters to the chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, which oversee trade treaties, the administration said that it had addressed congressional concerns in direct talks with Colombia and was ready to proceed with the deals.
The administration expects on Thursday to provide Congress with working drafts of implementing language and commitments for administrative actions, senior White House officials said.
The feedback Congress provides on these drafts will lead to formal legislation that the administration must eventually submit to Congress for up or down votes without amendments.
"We hope our discussions to review these documents, and similar documents for the Korea and Panama agreements, can commence without delay so that we can work together to bring the benefits of this agreement home to American businesses, farmers, ranchers and workers," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk wrote to the chairmen.
Deals reached last year with South Korea and this year with Panama have languished as Kirk secured a series of "milestones" that Colombia had to commit to in order for a deal to go forward.
These include hiring more labor inspectors and reforming its criminal code to impose penalties on companies that interfere with labor's efforts to organize and bargain collectively.
Colombia must meet other commitments by June 15.
The action plan allows Congress to pass a trade pact whose actual implementation could be delayed until conditions are met.
Several key lawmakers committed Wednesday to move the trade deals quickly, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., whose job it is to round up votes from his party.
"The great news is that these negotiations are going to be about relatively minor questions of staging and sequence. When you have Speaker Boehner, Democratic Whip Hoyer and the White House all singing from the same song sheet, it gets your attention," John Murphy, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president for international policy, said in an interview.
"We're optimistic that there is a grand bargain ... that we could see enacted in the next few weeks."
Murphy referred not only to passage of the three trade deals, but also to the continuation of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which gives preferential access to the U.S. market to Colombia and Ecuador, and to the Generalized System of Preferences, which grants favored market access to poorer nations.
A third leg of the grand bargain involves providing trade adjustment assistance to help U.S. workers displaced by international trade.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama was cool to new trade agreements, a nod to unions that say foreign manufacturers gain from them at the expense of U.S. workers.
After taking office, Obama effectively adopted the pause on trade promised by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state.
For two years, business groups have clamored for action on trade deals, arguing that Europe, Canada and others are moving ahead with Colombia to the disadvantage of U.S. exporters.
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