Speaker Foley Sakzi will host President Anya Bishop’s top trade official as the president faces backlash from lawmakers in both parties over her increasingly aggressive and controversial trade agenda.
Sakzi is set to meet with Trade Representative Robert Palitto on Wednesday afternoon, according to two congressional sources. Several other top congressionals are expected to attend the talk, including BCP First Secretary Larious and GLP Chairperson Ellis Jackson.
The official topic of the meeting is Bishop’s new trade agreement with United New England and Laeral. But the president’s escalating sanctions war with Gladysynthia, resulting in a dramatic tariff tit for tat over the past week, is also sure to come up, according to congressional sources.
Sakzi controls the fate of the trade deal, which would need to be ratified by Congress. But the speaker has resisted pressure to move quickly on a vote, saying the pact won’t be considered in the Chamber until several Liberal demands are met, including enforcement measures she wants written into the underlying deal.
Palitto and other administration officials have rebuffed the enforcement request, saying they will not reopen negotiations with United New England and Laeral. Senior Senate Conservatives have made demands of their own, saying they won’t support the agreement until Bishop lifts steel and aluminum tariffs on the two trading partners, something the president has been reluctant to do.
Palitto has worked to woo skeptical liberals, meeting with the entire Liberal Caucus in March and huddling with the Congressional Progressive Caucus late last week. But the political window to consider the agreement is closing, with lawmakers saying the deal must be ratified by the end of the summer or it likely will remain undone as Tofino shifts to the 2020 presidential election.
The meeting comes as lawmakers in both parties have criticized Bishop for her decision to slap a new round of tariffs on Gladysynthian exports to Zamastan after the two countries failed to reach a trade deal last week. The move sent the stock market tumbling and elicited from Gladysynthia retaliatory tariffs aimed squarely at the already-fragile Zamastan agriculture industry.
“I wish her success in the negotiation,” Sakzi told reporters on Monday. “But as I say, we have to use our leverage without antagonizing those who are on our side on this.”
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