Monday Quick Hits

American labor leaders quite often like to claim that they generally support "free trade" - just not this particular free trade agreement - because of some specific problem (or series of problems) that negotiators failed to resolve in the deal.  Usually, the unions' "go-to flaw" covers what they deem to be insufficient labor protections in the FTA partner's market which, if not resolved, would hurt poor foreign workers.  This "concern" paints the unions not as selfish thugs using political muscle to shield their antiquated industries and

The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly voted to proceed on the China currency legislation, clearing the way for a final Senate vote - and almost certain approval - later this week.  Also yesterday, the White House submitted the FTA implementing bills for the Korea, Colombia and Panama FTAs, but since a vote on those agreements isn't expected until next week, I'm going to focus on currency tonight and provide a nice little laundry list of things you should read on the China currency issue before the Senate vote:

Lots of interesting stuff went down while everyone was vacationing.  Here's a quick rundown:

One of the Commerce Department’s top priorities is to strengthen the economic ties between the United States and our trading partners. One year ago today, the ties between the United States and Colombia became much stronger with the implementation of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, which Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank marked during her remarks today at a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce and the Counsel of American Companies (CEA) in Bogotá, Colombia. 

With both the House and Senate poised to vote on, and approve, pending US FTAs with Colombia, Korea and Panama tomorrow, it seemed like a good time to provide some recent must-read items to get you caught up to speed:

On Tuesday, I blogged about whether the Obama administration's brilliant plan to jam through Congress joint legislation containing Trade Adjustment Assistance and the US-Korea FTA would, based on a reasonable reading of the law, qualify for the procedural protections afforded FTA implementing bills under Trade Promotion Authority.  My conclusions were that the White House's legislation shouldn't qualify for TPA, but that the Senate could - and probably would - just ignore the law.

Here are several headlines that are well worth your time:

Here are a few headlines to quell your Super Bowl / Reagan birthday hangovers: