GOP senators push for Western Hemisphere trade deal

The seven Republican senators — Mark Kirk of Illinois, Marco Rubio of Florida, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — also joined a letter sent by 44 Republican senators earlier this week, vowing to hold up the president’s nominee for Commerce Secretary unless the administration submits the Colombia and Panama deal. (The president recently nominated Gary Locke, the current Commerce secretary, to be ambassador to China.)

On Friday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) also made the case for the Panama and Colombia deals before the president departed on his six-day trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. 

While in Brazil, the president is expected to address a business summit and sit in — along with Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff — on a meeting of business leaders from the two countries. 

The idea of a Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would open markets in 34 countries, has been around since about the time the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted. 

Past presidents have tried to reach a deal on a hemisphere-wide trade agreement. For his part, George W. Bush ran into opposition from countries like Venezuela, who saw the plan as the United States being imperialistic, and Brazil and Argentina, who wanted America to end subsidies to its own agricultural producers.