II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 776
To provide the President with authority to enter into a comprehensive trade
agreement with the United Kingdom, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. C
OONS(for himself and Mr. MORAN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To provide the President with authority to enter into a
comprehensive trade agreement with the United King-
dom, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Undertaking Negotia-4
tions on Investment and Trade for Economic Dynamism 5
Act’’ or the ‘‘UNITED Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7
It is the sense of Congress that— 8
(1) the United States should pursue more open 9
trade and investment relationships with its allies to 10
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strengthen the economy of the United States, im-1
prove the standard of living of the people of the 2
United States, and advance the strategic interests of 3
the United States; 4
(2) agreements to reduce or eliminate barriers 5
to trade and investment between the United States 6
and its allies will foster mutually beneficial economic 7
relationships that advance the economic interests of 8
workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all 9
sizes in the United States; 10
(3) the shared values and long history of the 11
‘‘special relationship’’ between the United States and 12
the United Kingdom present a unique opportunity to 13
deepen the mutually beneficial economic and stra-14
tegic relationship between those countries and fur-15
ther expand prosperity for the citizens of those coun-16
tries; 17
(4) a high-standard, comprehensive trade agree-18
ment between the United States and the United 19
Kingdom would help strengthen that relationship, 20
improve the economic prospects of people in both 21
countries, increase the resilience of critical supply 22
chains, and create export opportunities for busi-23
nesses of all sizes; 24
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(5) the efforts of the United States-United 1
Kingdom Trade and Investment Working Group and 2
the bilateral negotiations initiated by President Don-3
ald J. Trump have laid groundwork toward a com-4
prehensive trade agreement; 5
(6) the United States-United Kingdom Dia-6
logue on the Future of Atlantic Trade, initiated by 7
President Joseph R. Biden, along with the signing 8
of the document entitled ‘‘Atlantic Declaration: A 9
Framework for a Twenty-First Century U.S.-U.K. 10
Economic Partnership’’, continued efforts to improve 11
economic cooperation between the United States and 12
United Kingdom; 13
(7) the robust labor and environmental protec-14
tions in the United Kingdom reduce the risk of regu-15
latory arbitrage that undercuts workers and busi-16
nesses in the United States; 17
(8) Congress passed the USMCA with over-18
whelming bipartisan support, setting high standards 19
in North America with respect to labor rights, the 20
environment, intellectual property, non-market prac-21
tices, and services, and those standards should in-22
form future negotiations; 23
(9) trade agreements with foreign trading part-24
ners that share the values and ambition of the 25
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United States offer an opportunity to build on the 1
USMCA and set high international standards across 2
many important policy areas; 3
(10) any trade negotiations between the United 4
States and the United Kingdom must honor the 5
agreement between the Government of Ireland and 6
the Government of the United Kingdom signed on 7
April 10, 1998 (commonly known as the ‘‘Good Fri-8
day Agreement’’), and any trade agreement between 9
those countries must advance peace, stability, and 10
prosperity in Ireland and Northern Ireland; 11
(11) the United Kingdom, like many key trad-12
ing partners of the United States, is actively negoti-13
ating for expanded access to foreign markets, and 14
the United States must likewise seek to advance its 15
access to foreign markets to ensure that businesses, 16
consumers, farmers, ranchers, and workers in the 17
United States are not left behind; and 18
(12) to effectively pursue comprehensive trade 19
negotiations with the United Kingdom for purposes 20
of a trade agreement between the United States and 21
the United Kingdom, Congress must grant new ne-22
gotiating authority to the President, which should— 23
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(A) enable the swift negotiation and pas-1
sage through Congress of such an agreement; 2
and 3
(B) be narrowly tailored to provide clear 4
direction to the executive branch of the United 5
States Government. 6
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
(1) USMCA.—The term ‘‘USMCA’’ means the 9
Agreement between the United States of America, 10
the United Mexican States, and Canada, which is— 11
(A) attached as an Annex to the Protocol 12
Replacing the North American Free Trade 13
Agreement with the Agreement between the 14
United States of America, the United Mexican 15
States, and Canada, done at Buenos Aires on 16
November 30, 2018, as amended by the Pro-17
tocol of Amendment to the Agreement Between 18
the United States of America, the United Mexi-19
can States, and Canada, done at Mexico City 20
on December 10, 2019; and 21
(B) approved by Congress under section 22
101(a)(1) of the United States–Mexico–Canada 23
Agreement Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 24
4511(a)). 25
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(2) UNITED KINGDOM .—The term ‘‘United 1
Kingdom’’ means the United Kingdom of Great 2
Britain and Northern Ireland. 3
SEC. 4. NEGOTIATING AND TRADE AGREEMENTS AUTHOR-4
ITY FOR COMPREHENSIVE AGREEMENT WITH 5
THE UNITED KINGDOM. 6
(a) I
NITIATION OFNEGOTIATIONS.—Not later than 7
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, in 8
order to enhance the economic well-being of the United 9
States, the President shall seek to initiate negotiations 10
with the United Kingdom regarding tariff and nontariff 11
barriers affecting any industry, product, or service sector. 12
(b) A
UTHORITY FOR COMPREHENSIVE TRADE 13
A
GREEMENTWITH THEUNITEDKINGDOM.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To strengthen the economic 15
competitiveness of the United States, the President 16
may enter into a comprehensive trade agreement 17
with the United Kingdom regarding tariff and non-18
tariff barriers affecting trade between the United 19
States and United Kingdom. 20
(2) T
ERMINATION OF AUTHORITY .—The au-21
thority under paragraph (1) terminates on March 1, 22
2029. 23
(c) M
ODIFICATIONSPERMITTED.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 1
the President may proclaim such modification or 2
continuance of any existing duty, continuance of ex-3
isting duty-free or excise treatment, or such addi-4
tional duties as the President determines to be re-5
quired or appropriate to carry out an agreement en-6
tered into under subsection (b). 7
(2) L
IMITATIONS.— 8
(A) M
ODIFICATIONS OR ADDITIONS TO 9
AGREEMENT.—Substantial modifications to, or 10
substantial additional provisions of, an agree-11
ment entered into after March 1, 2029, are not 12
covered by the authority under paragraph (1). 13
(B) A
MOUNT OF DUTY MODIFICATION .— 14
No proclamation may be made under paragraph 15
(1) that— 16
(i) reduces any rate of duty (other 17
than a rate of duty that does not exceed 5 18
percent ad valorem on the date of the en-19
actment of this Act) to a rate of duty that 20
is less than 50 percent of the rate of such 21
duty that applies on such date of enact-22
ment; 23
(ii) reduces the rate of duty below 24
that applicable under the Uruguay Round 25
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Agreements (as defined in section 2(7) of 1
the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (19 2
U.S.C. 3501)) or a successor agreement, 3
on any import sensitive agricultural prod-4
uct; or 5
(iii) increases any rate of duty above 6
the rate that applied on the date of the en-7
actment of this Act. 8
(d) C
ONSULTATION WITH ANDNOTIFICATION TO 9
C
ONGRESS.—To ensure the alignment of the trade policy 10
priorities of Congress with the content of any agreement 11
under this section, the President shall consult with Con-12
gress before and throughout negotiations initiated under 13
subsection (a) and shall notify Congress of the intention 14
of the President to enter into an agreement under sub-15
section (b) or to make a proclamation under subsection 16
(c). 17
(e) B
ILLSQUALIFYING FOR TRADEAUTHORITIES 18
P
ROCEDURES.— 19
(1) I
MPLEMENTING BILLS.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The provisions of sec-21
tion 151 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 22
2191) apply to a bill of either House of Con-23
gress that contains provisions described in sub-24
paragraph (B) to the same extent as such sec-25
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tion 151 applies to implementing bills under 1
that section. A bill to which this paragraph ap-2
plies shall hereafter in this section be referred 3
to as an ‘‘implementing bill’’. 4
(B) P
ROVISIONS SPECIFIED.—The provi-5
sions described in this subparagraph are— 6
(i) a provision approving a trade 7
agreement entered into under this section 8
and approving the statement of adminis-9
trative action, if any, proposed to imple-10
ment such trade agreement; and 11
(ii) if changes in existing laws or new 12
statutory authority are required to imple-13
ment such trade agreement, only such pro-14
visions as are strictly necessary or appro-15
priate to implement such trade agreement, 16
either repealing or amending existing laws 17
or providing new statutory authority. 18
(2) D
EADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF BILL .—The 19
procedures under paragraph (1) apply to imple-20
menting bills submitted with respect to a trade 21
agreement entered into under this section before 22
March 1, 2029. 23
(f) L
IMITATION ONWAIVER, SUSPENSION, ORTER-24
MINATION.—An agreement entered into under this section 25
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shall not be waived, suspended, or terminated, in whole 1
or in part, with respect to the United States without the 2
express approval by Congress of such termination. 3
(g) R
ELATIONSHIP TOBIPARTISANCONGRESSIONAL 4
T
RADEPRIORITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 5
2015.—An agreement under this section shall not enter 6
into force with respect to the United States and an imple-7
menting bill shall not qualify for trade authorities proce-8
dures under subsection (e), including an agreement that 9
does not require changes to United States law or an imple-10
menting bill in connection therewith, unless the following 11
requirements under the Bipartisan Congressional Trade 12
Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4201 13
et seq.) are carried out with respect to that agreement 14
or implementing bill to the same extent as would be re-15
quired of an agreement entered into under section 103(b) 16
of that Act (19 U.S.C. 4202(b)), notwithstanding the expi-17
ration of authority to enter into an agreement under such 18
section 103(b): 19
(1) The trade negotiating objectives under sec-20
tion 102 of that Act (19 U.S.C. 4201). 21
(2) The congressional oversight and consulta-22
tion requirements under section 104 of that Act (19 23
U.S.C. 4203). 24
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(3) The notification, consultation, and reporting 1
requirements under section 105 of that Act (19 2
U.S.C. 4204). 3
(4) The implementation procedures under sec-4
tion 106 of that Act (19 U.S.C. 4205). 5
(5) The provisions related to sovereignty under 6
section 108 of that Act (19 U.S.C. 4207). 7
Æ
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