[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 26 (Thursday, March 9, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S1393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BAUCUS:
  S. 2226. A bill to establish a Congressional Trade Office; to the 
Committee on Finance.


                 to create a congressional trade office

 Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, last year I introduced a bill to 
create a Congressional Trade Office. That bill was designed to provide 
the Congress with new and additional trade expertise that would be 
independent, non-partisan, and neutral. Today, I am introducing the 
same bill with several small changes.
  The role of Congress in trade policy has expanded in the few short 
months since I introduced my bill in September. We went through Seattle 
and the failure to launch a new multilateral trade round. The public is 
more interested in trade issues than ever before. There is a new 
urgency to reconcile labor and environmental issues with trade. We are 
on the cusp of seeing China enter the WTO with permanent Normal Trade 
Relations with the United States. The General Accounting Office has 
told us of the deficiencies in the Executive Branch in following trade 
agreements and monitoring compliance. And, for the first time, trade 
will be an issue in the Presidential campaign, as well as in Senate and 
House races.
  Congress needs to be much better prepared. And that means we need 
access to more and better information, independently arrived, at from 
people whose commitment is to the Congress, and only to the Congress.
  Congress has the Constitutional authority to provide more effective 
and active oversight of our Nation's trade policy. We must use that 
authority. Congress should be more active in setting the direction of 
trade policy. I believe strongly that we must re-assert Congress' 
constitutionally defined responsibility for international commerce.
  A Congressional Trade Office would provide the entire Congress, 
through the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means 
Committee, with this additional trade expertise. It would have three 
sets of responsibilities.
  First, it will monitor compliance with major bilateral, regional, and 
multilateral trade agreements. Last week, along with Senator Murkowski 
and several other Senators, I introduced the China WTO Compliance Act. 
That bill is designed to ensure continuing and comprehensive monitoring 
of China's WTO commitments. It is also designed to ensure aggressive 
Administration action to ensure compliance with those commitments. But 
that bill deals only with China. Congress needs the independent ability 
to look more closely at agreements with other countries. The 
Congressional Trade Office will analyze the performance under 
key agreements and evaluate success based on commercial results. It 
will do this in close consultation with the affected industries. The 
Congressional Trade Office will recommend to the Congress actions 
necessary to ensure that commitments made to the United States are 
fully implemented. It will also provide annual assessments about the 
agreements' compliance with labor and environmental goals.

  Second, the Congressional Trade Office will have an analytic 
function. For example, after the Administration delivers its annual 
National Trade Estimates report, the NTE, to Congress, it will analyze 
the major outstanding trade barriers based on the cost to the US 
economy. It will also provide an analysis of the Administration's Trade 
Policy Agenda.
  The Congressional Trade Office will analyze proposed trade 
agreements, including agreements that do not require legislation to 
enter into effect. It will examine the impact of Administration trade 
policy actions, including an assessment of the Administration's 
argument for not accepting an unfair trade practices case. And it will 
analyze the trade accounts every quarter, including the global current 
account, the global trade account, and key bilateral trade accounts.
  Third, the Congressional Trade Office will be active in dispute 
settlement deliberations. It will evaluate each WTO decision where the 
US is a participant. In the case of a US loss, it will explain why it 
lost. In the case of a US win, it will measure the commercial results 
from that decision. It will do a similar evaluation for NAFTA disputes. 
Congressional Trade Office staff should participate as observers on the 
US delegation at dispute settlement panel meetings at the WTO.
  The Congressional Trade Office is designed to service the Congress. 
Its Director will report to the Senate Finance Committee and the House 
Ways and Means Committee. It will also advise other committees on the 
impact of trade negotiations and the impact of the Administration's 
trade policy on those committees' areas of jurisdiction.
  The staff will consist of professionals who have a mix of expertise 
in economics and trade law, plus in various industries and geographic 
regions. My expectation is that staff members will see this as a career 
position, thus, providing the Congress with long-term institutional 
memory.
  The Congressional Trade Office will work closely with other 
government entities involved in trade policy assessment, including the 
Congressional Research Service, the General Accounting Office, and the 
International Trade Commission. The Congressional Trade Office will not 
replace those agencies. Rather, the Congressional Trade Office will 
supplement their work, and leverage the work of those entities to 
provide the Congress with timely analysis, information, and advice.
  Dispute resolution and compliance with trade agreements are central 
elements of US trade policy. The credibility of the global trading 
system, and the integrity of American trade law, depend on the belief, 
held by trade professionals, political leaders, industry 
representatives, workers, farmers, and the public at large, that 
agreements made are agreements followed. They must be fully 
implemented. There must be effective enforcement. Dispute settlement 
must be rapid and effective.
  Often more energy goes into negotiating new agreements than into 
ensuring that existing agreements work. The Administration has 
increased the resources it devotes to compliance, and I support that. 
But an independent and neutral assessment in the Congress of compliance 
is necessary. It is unrealistic to expect an agency that negotiated an 
agreement to provide a totally objective and dispassionate assessment 
of that agreement's success or failure.
  Looking at the WTO dispute settlement process, I don't think we even 
know whether it has been successful or not from the perspective of U.S. 
commercial interests. A count of wins versus losses tells us nothing. 
The Congressional Trade Office will give us the facts we need to 
evaluate this process properly.
  Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution says: ``The Congress 
shall have power . . . To regulate commerce with foreign nations.'' It 
is our responsibility to provide oversight and direction on US trade 
policy. The Congressional Trade Office, as I have outlined it today, 
will provide us in the Congress with the means to do so.
                                 ______