Bush to ask for extension of fast track trade powers
30 Jan 2007
Washington: According to the White House, US President George W Bush plans to urge lawmakers to give him sweeping trade negotiation powers this week as he delivers two economic policy speeches this week.
White house spokesman Tony Snow said a day before Bush was to make the first of two speeches detailing his economic priorities, that the president wanted to continue to have trade promotion authority, that every other president has had.
The "fast-track," power would bind the US Congress to vote to either accept or reject without debate or amendments to any trade deal the president negotiates. Bush''s fast-track powers are valid till midnight of 30 June 2007.
Commentators feel that it is unlikely the newly Democrat-controlled Congress would renew Bush''s fast-track powers.
The Bush administration wants to forge binding free trade ties with South Korea and Malaysia by early April in order to submit them to the US Congress.
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