Leaked U.S. FART act could be negotiating ploy
“I think that this is – sort of a shot across the bow at the WTO,” R Street Institute Trade Policy Counsel Clark Packard told me over the phone. “Look, if we lose the steel and aluminum cases, for instance, the president is prepared to just ignore that and potentially just impose tariffs, or whatever.”
Packard also disputed the notion Trump already has power to raise and lower tariffs under Section 301. In an e-mail, Packer wrote that the Statement of Administrative Action for the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act “prohibit the United States from using Section 301 unilaterally to combat practices that are covered by WTO agreements.”
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“What incentive would they have to help him get something done in 2018 sort of in anticipation of him running for re-election in 2020?” Packard rhetorically asked of me. “I think that they’re misreading the political tea leaves here and I don’t think that Congress would give them this authority, even Democrats.”
