HOLLINGS OFFERS MEASURE TO HAVE CONGRESS MICROMANAGE TRADE
Byline: Joyce Barrett
WASHINGTON — Congress would have to approve every tariff reduction, quota change or classification alteration under a plan introduced Tuesday by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D., S.C.).
Hollings seeks to attach his measure to a waiver Congress must pass so that the nomination of Charlene Barshefsky as U.S. Trade Representative can be confirmed by the Senate.
Current U.S. law prohibits people from serving as USTR or deputy USTR if they have represented a foreign government.
While in private law practice here in the Seventies, Barshefsky represented the Canadian government on timber and beer issues.
Although confirmation is expected, the Senate likely won’t consider it for several more weeks; Congress will be on recess next week for the Presidents’ Day holiday. The Senate Finance Committee unanimously endorsed her nomination Jan. 29.
Hollings acknowledged that the plan, staunchly opposed by the Clinton administration and Democratic leadership in the Senate, likely will fail when it finally comes up.
He vowed, however, to attempt to revive it whenever Congress considers trade issues this Congress.
Those issues could include an extension of fast-track, Caribbean parity or China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.
“This will be around for a while,” Hollings told reporters. “This is a point of principle. We get tired of having to drag the administration down here to find out what they’re doing. We’ve got to be more realistic in our trade negotiations.”
In a letter he circulated to his Senate colleagues Tuesday, Hollings makes his point that he plans broad applications for the measure. “A fundamental is involved,” he wrote. “If laws are changed, it should be by the way the Constitution designates. Left unchallenged, laws effecting financial services, the maritime industry and the application of dumping laws for the admission of China to the WTO could be repealed.”