Cotton: Fast-track powers to aid state

Obama’s authority unaltered, he says

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. arrives to pose for photographers in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 11, 2015.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. arrives to pose for photographers in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 11, 2015.

ROGERS -- Fast-track authority on trade agreements will benefit Arkansas and the United States without expanding the president's power, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark, said Tuesday.

"Trade promotion authority gives the president no more authority than he inherently possesses," Cotton told the Rogers Rotary Club. The senator is a frequent critic of President Barack Obama, particularly on foreign affairs.

Any U.S. president can negotiate trade agreements, Cotton said, whether those agreements are approved is up to Congress.

"Congress is ill-designed to approve trade agreements, where everything is subject to give and take," he said.

Trade promotion authority, which recently passed in Congress after weeks of debate, streamlines the process. It requires Congress to give an up or down vote on a trade pact negotiated by the president. It also requires full disclosure of all provisions of any such pact months before the vote, Cotton said.

Congress first enacted this authority in 1974, but renewing it is often contentious. Obama and many Republicans in Congress, normally foes, supported renewing the authority. Most congressional lawmakers who opposed it were Democrats.

"One of the reasons I support this is because it would grant that authority for six years, which I hope will include the term of a Republican president," Cotton told the group.

Cotton said he also approves of Obama's plans to use the authority to negotiate a broad free-trade agreement with countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.

"I'm speechless, actually," Tyler Clark, chairman of the Washington County Democrats, said when told about Cotton's support for something the president seeks. "Tom Cotton is finally on the right side of what's best for the country and our relationships around the world. He's actually taking notice that some things need a bipartisan approach."

Japan and Singapore are now the fifth- and seventh-ranking export destinations for Arkansas goods that range from soybean meal and poultry to manufactured transportation equipment, according to figures provided by the senator's office. Exports to those two countries grew by 71 percent in value in 2013 and 43 percent in 2014, the senator said.

The agreement would demonstrate U.S. commitment to the region and offset the growing influence of China, Cotton said.

"This would be an undeniable declaration that America is there to stay in east Asia," Cotton said.

One Pacific Rim country that has a long history of tension with China is Vietnam, Cotton said. Cotton's father, who accompanied the senator Tuesday, is a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Cotton and his parents attended a Vietnamese trade office opening Tuesday in Bentonville. Nearly 50 years after his father fought there, "I'm able to stand here with representatives of his former adversary turned ally to celebrate a symbol of the peace and prosperity my father so desired," Cotton said in a statement.

Taking questions from the audience at the Rotary Club, Cotton said smaller banks need to be exempted from banking regulations that are stifling small loans to consumers.

He also said federal highway money is being drained by projects such as landscaping, light rail and mass transit.

"Meritorious as those programs may be, they aren't highways and if it wasn't for them, the federal Highway Trust Fund would be in the black," he said.

Metro on 07/01/2015

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