Why Certain Trade Agreements Are Approved as Congressional-Executive Agreements Rather Than as Treaties

Congress authorized the President to negotiate and enter into tariff and nontariff barrier (NTB) agreements for limited periods, while permitting NTB and free trade agreements (FTAs) negotiated under this authority to enter into force for the United States only if they were approved by both houses in a bill enacted into public law and other statutory conditions were met. The President was again granted temporary trade negotiating authority utilizing this approval procedure in the Trade Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-210); the authority expires June 30, 2007. The Administration concluded trade agreements with Oman, Peru, Colombia, and Panama in 2006 and is negotiating other FTAs, as well as multilateral agreements in the WTO Doha Round, under the 2002 act. The FTA with Oman was approved and implemented in P.L. 109-283; Congress may consider the other three agreements, as well as an extension of the President's negotiating authority, in the 110th Congress. A federal appellate court held in 2001 that the issue of whether the NAFTA should have been approved as a treaty rather than as a congressional-executive agreement was a nonjusticiable political question; the U.S. Supreme Court denied review in the case.


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1	97-896_04_15_2007.pdf	Jan 12, 2007	97-896	6	$19.95	Add to Cart

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