POTUS Rules the Trade Wars. Thank You, Congress.
Until Trump, lawmakers could rely on the White House to take the heat for unpopular agreements.
OK, but the president doesn’t.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
Once upon a time, Congress had the lead role in trade policy. Think back to the “tariff of abominations” of the 19th century or Smoot-Hawley of the 20th in your high school history class. So how did the presidency come to take charge of trade to the extent that it’s news when a bipartisan group in the Senate and some House Republicans move to reclaim that power? And why is that objective probably unachievable, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggests?
Jennifer Delton, at Made by History, describes how trade-supporting liberals, beginning in 1934, increasingly delegated authority over trade from Congress to the president. The assumption was that the executive would be more inclined to favor “free” trade than Congress and more capable of achieving national trade goals. There are several reasons for that.