Embedded Files
The Politics Shed- A Free Text Book for all students of Politics.
What is it? A piece of constitutional magic conjured up by the president in making an agreement with another country. This agreement does not require Senate ratification. This could be seen as replacing treaties and allowing the president to bypass traditional constitutional relations to achieve foreign-policy goals. It is the president who decides what is a treaty and what is simply an `agreement'.
Ratification: Unlike a treaty, an executive agreement does not require formal approval from the legislature, such as the U.S. Senate's two-thirds vote. However, in the United States, some executive agreements require congressional approval through a simple majority vote in both houses through a process sometimes called "fast track".
Political vs. Legal: Executive agreements are often considered politically binding, while treaties are legally binding.
Examples: Many bilateral trade arrangements, such as NAFTA, have been implemented through executive agreements following a congressional vote.
Flexibility: This process allows for quicker implementation of international agreements, particularly in areas like trade, because it avoids the more difficult treaty ratification process.
Controversy: There can be controversy over executive agreements, with some members of Congress expressing concern that the executive branch might overstep its authority and that agreements could be ignored or renegotiated by future administrations.
Examples Obama's Iran deal in 2015, agreeing on lifting some trade embargoes and freezing Iranian assets in return for Iranian efforts to end their aims to be a military nuclear power; 2015 China environment deal, negotiated in secret, agreeing to US and Chinese attempts to reduce CO2 emissions.
Trump: On May 8, 2025, the U.K. and U.S. announced a trade deal to reduce or remove tariffs on each other’s exports, including on cars, steel and aluminum, and released the general terms for a potential U.K.-U.S. trade agreement. Both governments refer to the agreement as the “US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal” or “EPD.
The signing and ending of the JCPOA is an example of the weakness of Executive Agreements since they only last as long as the president who signed them.
The United States and other world powers reached a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran in 2015 the agreement, reached by seven countries after more than two years of grueling negotiations, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, the deal followed two years of negotiations. Then-President Barack Obama, who campaigned on resolving the Iranian nuclear threat, called the issue the "most consequential foreign policy debate that our country has had since the invasion of Iraq."
Two years after the deal went into effect, President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear accord, in one of the most significant foreign policy actions during his first term as president.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse