Retailers urge approval of TPA renewal legislation
The USA’s National Retail Federation (NRF) has urged members of the House to approve legislation renewing presidential Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) when the measure comes up for a vote this week.
With the legislation’s provisions allowing Congress to set the negotiating objectives for trade agreements and oversee the executive branch during negotiations, the Federation is arguing that TPA will strengthen the role of Congress in trade policy. The NRF said that retailers must source their goods from both the United States and other countries around the world in order to provide their customers with the products they want at the prices they can afford. The ability to conduct commerce free of foreign and domestic trade barriers, said the NRF, is therefore absolutely essential to the health and growth of the nation’s retail industry and the jobs of the over 22 million Americans employed in retail — over one-fifth of the entire U.S. workforce.
The House is scheduled to vote on the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2001. TPA, previously known as fast track, allows the president to negotiate trade agreements that Congress can either approve or reject but cannot amend. The Authority was held by every president from Ford through to Clinton but expired during the Clinton administration and has not yet been renewed.
The National Retail Federation is the world’s largest retail trade association with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet and independent stores. NRF members represent an industry that encompasses more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, employs more than 20 million people (about one in five American workers) and registered sales of $3.4 trillion during 2000. The NRF’s international members operate stores in more than 50 countries. In its role as the retail industry’s umbrella group, the NRF also represents 32 national and 50 state associations in the U.S. as well as 36 international associations representing retailers abroad.
