Last Thursday, legislation to restore “fast track” trade promotion authority was introduced in Congress. The grant of that authority is widely considered necessary to complete and ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement between the United States and 11 other Pacific-bordering nations, as well as other prospective trade agreements. But this vehicle, which conveys congressional negotiating objectives to the president in exchange for the promise of a timely, up-or-down vote, pulled out of the driveway on a flat tire – and the spare is buried in the president’s trunk.
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