Number: 97-896
Title: Why Certain Trade Agreements Are Approved as Congressional-Executive Agreements Rather Than as Treaties
Authors: Jeanne J. Grimmett, American Law Division 
Abstract: Congress has authorized the President to negotiate and enter into tariff and nontariff barrier (NTB) agreements for limited periods, while permitting NTB and free trade agreements negotiated under this authority to enter into force for the United States only if they are approved by both houses in a bill enacted into public law and other statutory conditions are met; implementing bills are also accorded expedited consideration under the scheme. The President was again granted temporary trade negotiating authority utilizing this approach in the Trade Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-210); the authority applied to agreements entered into before July 1, 2007. Implementing bills for eight FTAs have been signed into law under the act; agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea remain pending. While legislation for the U.S.-Colombia agreement (H.R. 5724) was introduced April 8, 2008, House leadership considered that the President had submitted the bill without sufficient coordination with Congress, and on April 10 the House voted to make key procedural rules for expedited consideration inapplicable to the legislation (H.Res. 1092). A federal appeals court held in 2001 that the issue of whether the NAFTA should have been approved as a treaty was a nonjusticiable political question; the U.S. Supreme Court denied review.
Pages: 6
Date: April 15, 2008