Biden urged to try for EU trade deal

Key Democrat bids to tweak agenda

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee urged the incoming administration to renew trade negotiations with the European Union, countering a pledge by Presidentelect Joe Biden to postpone any new trade talks until after the United States has made significant domestic investments.

The statement Friday, from Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., raises the question of whether congressional pressure could persuade the Biden administration to take a more aggressive approach to trade negotiations with close allies.

Biden has downplayed expectations for such talks early in his term, saying he wants to first wrest control of the pandemic and make substantial investments in U.S. industries like energy, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

“I’m not going to enter any new trade agreement with anybody until we have made major investments here at home and in our workers,” Biden said in a New York Times interview last week.

But since congressional opposition would be one of the main obstacles to any new trade agreement, the support of key Democrats could be strong motivation for initiating talks.

In an interview, Neal suggested that reaching a trade agreement with the European Union would help deal with the rising economic threat from China, which has used hefty subsidies, state-owned companies and other practices to dominate industries and challenge the trade rules long embraced in the West.

Neal called Biden’s approach “fine and fair,” but argued that pursuing EU trade negotiations “is part of a foreign policy challenge as it relates to China’s expansionist activities.”

Biden would need the support of Neal and others to cement such a deal. So-called trade promotion authority, a statute that sets out guidelines for the executive branch as it negotiates trade deals and streamlines the approval process, is set to expire in July; any deals submitted to Congress after that could face a more difficult path to ratification.

Despite deep historic ties, the United States and Europe have not always had an easy trading relationship. The governments have argued for decades over tariffs, farm subsidies and food safety standards.