Obama Plan Boosts International Trade Funds

WASHINGTON — President Obama placed a premium on international trade, proposing significant increases in funding for agencies that govern trade negotiations and enforcement, counterfeits and ports in the federal budget blueprint he submitted to Congress on Wednesday.

Obama’s $3.77 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 that begins Oct. 1 reverses the steep spending cuts, known as the “sequester,” that took effect last month and threaten to curtail some trade initiatives and enforcement. The President’s budget proposal would also increase these areas from the level where they stood prior to the steep, automatic spending cuts.