Free Trade, Free Markets: Rating the 112th Congress

A review of the Cato Institute’s congressional trade votes database reveals how the 112th Congress and its individual members voted on major trade bills and amendments.¹ After a lull in congressional trade policymaking, the 112th Congress saw renewed action in trade policy but very little initiative. There were 15 individual votes that had an impact on Americans’ freedom to trade, whereas the 111th Congress held only three. The votes in the 112th Congress included consideration of three free trade agreements; two initiatives targeting imports from China; the extension of export finance subsidies, agriculture subsidies, and price supports; and the acceptance of U.S. obligations toward Russia after that country’s accession to the World Trade Organization.
Despite this increase in attention, the congressional trade agenda during the 112th Congress was largely reactionary to external events. Votes on the farm bill and the Export-Import Bank merely sought to extend existing programs. The vote on trade relations with Russia was a response to that country joining the World Trade Organization after decades of negotiation, and a vote to allow anti-subsidy duties to be imposed on Chinese goods was meant to keep in place an existing practice found illegal by a federal court.

http://www.cato.org/publications/free-trade-bulletin/free-trade-free-markets-rating-112th-congress