[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1130-S1131]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BAUCUS:
  S. 274. A bill to establish a Congressional Trade Office; to the 
Committee on Finance.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I am introducing a bill today to create a 
Congressional Trade Office. It is similar to the bill I offered in the 
last session of Congress. This legislation is designed to assist the 
Congress in fulfilling our Constitutional responsibility for trade 
policy by creating an entity that can provide us with the expertise we 
need to get independent, non-partisan, and neutral analysis and 
information about trade.
  Over the past three decades, the role of trade in our economy has 
grown enormously. In 1970, trade was equal to only eleven percent of 
our Gross Domestic Product. In contrast, today exports and imports are 
equivalent to 27 percent of our economy.
  I have been in Congress for 26 years. During that time, I have 
watched a continuing transfer of authority and responsibility for trade 
policy from the Congress to the Executive Branch. The trend has been 
subtle, but it has been clear and constant. We need to reverse this 
trend.
  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 set the direction for the Executive Branch in 
its Formulation of trade policy. It is our responsibility to ensure 
that agreements with our trading partners are followed and that there 
is full compliance. It is our responsibility to provide more effective 
and active oversight of our nation's trade policy. I believe strongly 
that we must re-assert Congress' constitutionally defined 
responsibility for international commerce.
  The Congressional Trade Office I am proposing will provide the entire 
Congress, through the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and 
Means Committee, with the additional trade expertise that will allow us 
to meet these responsibilities.
  The trade issues that the Congress may face this session are many and 
complex: Fast track; incorporating legitimate labor and environmental 
issues into trade policy; the U.S./Jordan Free Trade Agreement; the 
U.S./Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement; Free Trade Area for the 
Americas; possible free trade agreements with Singapore, Chile, and 
others; Chinese accession to WTO and then compliance with its WTO 
commitments; and a new comprehensive multilateral trade round.
  Congress needs to be much better prepared to deal with these issues 
responsibly and authoritatively. 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.
  The Congressional Trade Office would help us meet these 
responsibilities through its four core functions.
  First, it will monitor compliance with major bilateral, regional, and 
multilateral trade agreements. 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 of the 
extent to which agreements comply with labor and environmental goals.
  The General Accounting Office has reported on the deficiencies in the 
Executive Branch in following trade agreements and monitoring 
compliance. 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 supported 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. Human nature, and institutional 
nature, does not lead to such an outcome.
  Second, observing trade negotiations first hand is critical to the 
ability of Congress to provide meaningful oversight of trade policy. 
Congressional Trade Office staff will participate in selected 
negotiations as observers and report back to the Committees.
  Third, the Congressional Trade Office will be active in dispute 
settlement deliberations. It will evaluate each WTO decision where the 
U.S. is a participant. In the case of a U.S. loss, it will explain why 
it lost. In the case of a U.S. win, it will measure the commercial 
results from that decision. Congressional Trade Office staff should 
participate as observers on the U.S. delegation at appropriate dispute 
settlement panel meetings at the WTO.
  I don't think we even know whether the WTO dispute settlement process 
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.
  Fourth, 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

[[Page S1131]]

U.S. economy. It will also provide an analysis of the Administration's 
Trade Policy Agenda.
  The Congressional Trade Office will analyze proposed trade 
agreements. It will examine the impact of Administration trade policy 
actions. And it will analyze the trade accounts every quarter, 
including the global current account, the global trade account, and key 
bilateral trade accounts.
  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 both 
the impact of trade negotiations and the impact of the Administration's 
trade policy on those committees' areas of jurisdiction. Trade rules 
increasingly affect domestic regulations. Expertise on the implications 
of trade policy on domestic regulatory issues will be vitally 
necessary. The Congressional Trade Office can provide that assistance.
  The staff of the Congressional Trade Office 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.
  I encourage my colleagues to support this innovative proposal.
                                 ______