Romney supporter (and former USTR) Senator Rob Portman says Romney will push harder for bilateral FTAs, and be tougher on China, than Obama:
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would move aggressively to open up
more foreign markets for U.S. exports, while getting tougher with China on its trade and currency practices, Senator Rob Portman said on Tuesday.The potential Romney vice presidential running mate said President Barack Obama has allowed the United States to fall "behind in a very significant way (on trade) because we are not engaging in opening up markets virtually anywhere."
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He defended Romney's pledge to crack down on China's currency practices by quickly declaring them a currency manipulator, even though that worries some business groups who fear it would provoke Beijing to retaliate.
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U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has said the White House would ask Congress for trade promotion authority before submitting the Trans-Pacific pact to Congress for a vote.
Portman said he supported the proposed deal but believed it would be difficult to win significant new market-opening commitments in a negotiation with so many countries involved.
"Bilateral (trade agreements are) where you make the progress and we're not doing anything," Portman said.
Obama has not launched any bilateral free trade agreements since taking office in 2009, and only sent Bush-era free trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress in 2011 after negotiating a number of changes to make the agreements more acceptable to Democrats.
Of course, after the last election, I'm not sure how much to believe trade related campaign rhetoric.
I am curious, though. What bilateral FTAs would he pursue?