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Successor to Robert Zoellick is expected to face many global, domestic challenges

WASHINGTON, DC - 03/22/05 - President Bush has nominated a member of the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to be the next US Trade Representative (USTR). 

Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, is expected to face daunting challenges both in advancing international negotiations and in moving the administration's trade agenda forward in Congress.

"As a member of the House leadership, Rob has shown he can bring together people of differing views to get things done," Bush said at the White House in announcing the nomination. 

A former international-trade lawyer and a sitting member of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, Portman has also served as liaison between the Bush White House and House Republican leaders.

If confirmed by the Senate, as seems likely, Portman would succeed Robert Zoellick, who served as USTR for Bush until he was confirmed as Deputy Secretary of State last month. 

Senate confirmation isn't expected before April because Congress is poised to depart Washington for a two-week recess.

According to sources, Portman would face some trade negotiating challenges, especially guiding completion of the long-stalled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations launched in 2001 and revived, largely by Zoellick's efforts, in 2004 when ministers agreed on a framework for working out difficult agricultural issues.

Also to be completed are the long-stalled Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations, launched in 1995 and now past the original 2004 deadline.

Even more immediately, though, Portman would face challenges in Congress, which is bitterly divided over trade issues.

The president is expected soon to request a two-year extension of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) - also known as fast track - to continue ongoing negotiations and launch any new ones.

Under TPA, Congress restricts itself to only approve or reject a negotiated trade agreement, within strict time limits and without amendments. 

Pro-trade committee chairmen are considered likely to forestall attempts to defeat TPA extension by preventing votes on the House and Senate floors.

They cannot, however, prevent votes on whether to continue US membership in the WTO. 

Under US law, once every five years members of the House and Senate are allowed to insist on votes to pull the US out of the WTO.  Even if such a resolution passed Congress, though, the House and Senate would have to override with two-thirds majorities a likely veto by President Bush.

The new USTR will also inherit a raft of disputes with the European Union, China, Canada, Brazil and other countries as well as the effort to secure bilateral trade agreements and a global trade pact under the WTO's Doha Round.

Washington recently lost a WTO dispute with Brazil over US cotton subsidies, found to be a violation of global trade rules.

The EU ban on hormone-injected US beef is another key dispute before the WTO and Washington has taken Canada to task on its subsidies for products ranging from lumber to pork.

Meanwhile, the new USTR will have to deal with pressure from many US-based industries to curb imports from China of textiles, furniture and other goods; the continuing efforts to enforce the protection of US patents and copyrights; and efforts to curb the piracy of US goods and services, including films and music.

But, perhaps, the most daunting challenge for the next USTR is persuading Congress to pass the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which was signed in May 2004 and has not yet been submitted for approval nearly a year later.

Opponents of CAFTA-DR, both Democrats and Republicans, are many. 

Some oppose increasing US market access to imported textiles and apparel and sugar.  Others, especially Democrats, contend that the agreement would do little if anything to promote core labor rights around the Caribbean.

The president did not mention CAFTA-DR in his White House remarks introducing Portman, however.

"I've asked him to take on a bold agenda," Bush said. "We need to continue to open markets abroad by pursuing bilateral free trade agreements with partners around the world. We need to finish our work to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas, which will become the largest free trade zone in the world."

The US, the president said, needs to complete the Doha round negotiations within the World Trade Organization "to reduce global barriers to trade. We must continue to vigorously enforce the trade laws on the books so that American businesses and workers are competing on a level playing field."

Prior to his election to Congress, Portman - a graduate of Dartmouth with a law degree from the University of Michigan - was an associate in the Washington law firm Patton Boggs from 1984-1986, where he specialized in international trade law.

Portman then returned to his hometown of Cincinnati to work as a partner at the law firm of Graydon, Head and Ritchey from 1986-1989.

For the next two years, he served in the first Bush White House as Associate Counsel to the President and later as Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.

Portman's nomination has been greeted with approval both domestically and abroad.

The Ohio Republican was described in the National Journal as "one of the more proficient and pragmatic Republican legislators of his generation."

A number of diverse national industry and trade organizations including the US Council for International Business, the Food Products Association, the European-American Business Council, the Corn Refiners Association welcomed the nomination with the giant National Association Manufacturers issuing a statement praising Portman as "representative of a great manufacturing state" and "someone who knows what it takes to compete in the world."

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile applauded Portman's nomination telling the Australian media that Portman had "a strong pro-trade record" in Congress, and that US leadership would be "crucial to build momentum for a good outcome to the upcoming Doha round of trade negotiations later this year in Hong Kong."

According to the New Zealand Herald, the nomination "could finally get New Zealand the bilateral free-trade agreement it has been seeking."

"The Capitol Hill veteran," the paper wrote, "was one of several congressmen who signed a letter to Mr. Bush in 2003 urging him to start negotiations for a free-trade agreement with New Zealand."

The paper also praised Portman for his membership in the Friends of New Zealand Congressional Caucus, a bipartisan group of 50 Congress members formed earlier this year to strengthen the economic relationship between the US and New Zealand.

New Zealand Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton also welcomed the nomination saying the nominee would bring "stong pro-trade" credentials to the job.

"When Mr Portman is confirmed in office, I look forward to meeting with him in person," said Sutton.

"I wouldn't want to count chickens that haven't hatched but he looks pretty good."

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