Asia pact, Ex-Im bank bring U.S. trade rep to Everett

  • By Dan Catchpole Herald Writer
  • Tuesday, August 12, 2014 7:06pm
  • BusinessEverett

EVERETT — The White House’s top trade official and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen visited Everett and Seattle this week to stump for a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 Asian and Pacific Rim countries, as well as federal financing for U.S. exports by companies like Boeing.

Achieving those two goals would open new opportunities for Washington businesses, which recorded nearly $82 billion in exports last year, they said.

But both goals have critics, and neither is a done deal.

Negotiations for the free-trade agreement, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), have blown past an initial 2012 deadline. A draft copy leaked late last year and published by Wikileaks seemed to show the U.S. and other countries were far apart on some issues.

Ambassador Michael Froman, the U.S. trade representative, said he’s focused on moving it forward.

On Tuesday, Froman and Larsen toured Boeing’s Everett plant, and Froman addressed the Washington Council on International Trade in Seattle.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, Froman said, would give U.S. companies greater access to markets in Asia, which has a rapidly expanding middle class. “The question is, ‘Who’s going to serve them? Who’s going to provide them with the food and agricultural products, with the services, with the manufactured products?’”

The agreement is primarily about easing trade barriers, but, Froman said, it would also raise standards in those countries for labor rules, environmental quality and intellectual property.

It will be “the most progressive trade agreement in history,” Froman said.

However, many special interest groups and some members of Congress have criticized the TPP’s secretive negotiation process. Labor unions, including the Machinists union, have characterized it as driven by the interests of corporate boardrooms rather than shopfloor workers. And digital-rights advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation say the U.S. has pushed the most controversial — and most restrictive — aspects of digital copyright laws while omitting the most flexible parts.

The U.S. has gone into negotiations with the highest standards, said Larsen, the 2nd District Democrat.

The result will be a compromise among the negotiating countries, he said. “We’re big kids, we get that.”

He expressed less patience for members of Congress opposed to extending the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s authorization, which expires Sept. 30.

The bank provides financing for buyers of U.S. exports. Its largest beneficiary is Boeing, a fact that leads critics to derisively call the 80-year-old institution Bank of Boeing.

Congress typically extends the Ex-Im Bank’s authorization quietly, with bipartisan support. But a group of House Republicans split with their leadership and have opposed the bank, which they say is tantamount to corporate welfare.

With the issue cast in ideological terms, Ex-Im supporters face an uphill fight as the clock ticks down on the bank.

If it isn’t reauthorized, the bank won’t close its doors the next day. It still has outstanding loans that have to be managed. And Congress can always resurrect it down the road.

But business will suffer in the meantime, Larsen said. “At Boeing, 18 percent of deliveries are 100 percent dependent on Ex-Im financing.”

Right now, reauthorization isn’t even on Congress’ agenda after it returns from recess.

Private financing would likely be available for jetliner sales without Ex-Im financing, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group.

Jetliners are seen as low-risk purchases with good returns from loans, but what happens five or 10 years from now? Financiers might have better places to put their money, he said.

Regardless of how airplane sales are financed, U.S. officials will back up American companies, Froman said.

Several European and Chinese politicians have helped their domestic airplane makers close business deals in recent years.

So too has Obama, Froman said. “We’re willing to go to bat for American companies when sales are on the line.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.