Democrats back bill to restore US trade hammer
Reuters, Washington
Two Democratic senators unveiled legislation Thursday that would require the US Trade Represen-tative's office to take more aggressive action, including the possible use of trade sanctions, to force countries to drop their barriers to US exports.The move followed a call by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry earlier this week for Congress to restore the measure, known as Super 301, that many US trading partners came to dread in the 1980s and 1990s. "Our trading partners don't like Super 301 at all," Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said at an event with Sen. John Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat, to discuss the bill. "Who can blame them? Super 301 shines a spotlight on how they're not playing by the rules and shortchanging the United States. Nobody likes to get caught in the act," said Baucus. The legislation would require the Trade Representative's office to publish an annual list of the biggest foreign barriers to US exports and seek consultations with each trading partner identified in the report within 21 days. If those talks don't succeed in eliminating the trade barriers within 90 days, USTR would be required to begin steps that could lead to either a formal complaint at the World Trade Organisation or US sanctions, said Corzine's office.
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