Obama to Push Trusted Traveler Programs, TPP at North America Summit, Say Administration Officials
President Barack Obama intends to prioritize expanding North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Trusted Traveler programs and concluding Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations during discussions with U.S. and Canadian officials at the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico on Feb. 19, senior Obama Administration officials said in a call with reporters on Feb. 14.
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“You should expect that there will be some work related to the Trusted Traveler program. As you know, we have worked with Canada and with Mexico in these programs,” said one administration official. “We’re very pleased with the progress of our cooperation on these types of programs. And we’d like to accelerate and deepen our work on a North American basis in the Trusted Traveler Program area.” Without identifying specifics, the officials said the U.S. is targeting increased importer and exporter information harmonization, collaboration on transportation planning and regulatory cooperation.
Obama also plans to press conclusion of TPP negotiations by the end of 2014, said the administration officials. “We are obviously at a critical point in working towards finalizing an ambitious trade agreement -- high-standards trade agreement that would encompass roughly 40 percent of the global economy in the TPP countries,” said one official. “It is still very much our goal to complete a TPP agreement this year. And the President has put a lot of time and energy into the negotiation of TPP. Similarly, Mike Froman has really made this a priority as the U.S. Trade Representative.”
Despite Democratic resistance in Congress to this year’s iteration of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), Obama remains intent on signing TPA legislation, said the officials. The legislation will help the U.S. secure TPP, said the officials, adding that the pending trade pact is designed to build off progress and assets in the NAFTA. “We have an agenda that focuses, again, on lifting up North American competitiveness, reducing barriers to effective and efficient trade that supports jobs in all three countries,” said one official.
“There’s been some criticism in the past around some of the issues that were not addressed in NAFTA,” added an official. “That’s all the more reason to do TPP, because what TPP does is it allows us to address some of the issues that were not a part of the NAFTA agreement on labor, on the environment so that we’re essentially bringing this agreement into the 21st century and broadening the group of countries that are in the trading block with North America.” Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch in a report released on Feb. 13 said endemic problems in NAFTA, including significant domestic job loss, skyrocketing income inequality, agricultural instability and health and environment damage are fueling congressional opposition to the TPP (see 14021321).
The administration officials dismissed comments reportedly made by Vice President Joe Biden that suggested he recently acknowledged Democratic concerns about TPA legislation (here). Biden is fully in support of closing TPP negotiations, the officials emphasized.