With reauthorization for the Export-Import Bank still pending and the Trans-Pacific Partnership a distant hope, one economist calls on history as a model. In 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt eloquently stated, "A full and permanent domestic recovery depends in part upon a revived and strengthened international trade." Sadly, this important history lesson seems lost on the 113th Congress, which continues to remain gridlocked and stalled on sound trade initiatives that could propel the U.S. over its sluggish economic hump. In dealing with the economic mess that was the Great Depression, FDR knew well that in addition to domestic policy measures, the country needed to be economically engaged with the rest of the world. His first initiative was the establishment of the Export-Import Bank to finance U.S. trade. Next up was fixing the crippling tariff barriers. Most important, he asked for the authority to negotiate trade deals that would reduce tariffs within levels pre-approved by Congress. The authority was granted, and this cooperation between executive and legislative branches worked so well that the authority was renewed 11 times until 1962.
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