Recently, the office of the president pushed for a measure, called Tra

(A) the president to negotiate and amend trade deals, as well as to veto them
(B) the president to negotiate, amend, and to veto trade deals
(C) the president to negotiate, to amend, and veto trade deals
(D) the president to negotiate, amend, as well as to veto trade deals
(E) trade deals to be negotiated, amended, as well as vetoed by the president

B, C & D have parallelism issue. between A & E - E in passive form and trade deals cant be allowed to negotiate, it should be president
A is better, hence answer

Though a few good answers have already been posted in this thread and I do concur with them on (A) as the correct choice, there is one place where I have some disagreement with the lot.

"as well as" is indeed followed by a -ing verb if a verb is placed after as well as. But, in the given sentence, is it so? In my opinion, the author has placed "an infinitive" and not a plain "verb", so the infinitive need not be in the "-ing" form. Simply, the "-ing" rule does not apply in this case.

And (A) is correct because the usage of "as well as" infers that one of the items deserves emphasis. "as well as" is not like "and", but it can be used to "connect words, phrases, and clauses to each other".

Here, in (A) "as well as" joins two phrases:

Trade Promotion Authority will allow the president to negotiate and amend trade deals, as well as to veto them.

Here, a special "emphasis" is provided to the "to veto them". Here, both the "infinitives" are parallel, and thus correct.

You can further check its validity by replacing "as well as" with "not only X but Y". Because that's what "as well as" actually means.

Trade Promotion Authority will allow the president not only to negotiate and amend trade deals, but also to veto them

Here, again you can see that both the items X and Y in "not only X, but also Y" are parallel and make complete sense.

Hope it helps.

Experts' Global Official Explanation:

Meaning + Parallelism + Redundancy/Awkwardness + Verb Forms + Grammatical Construction

• All elements in a list must be parallel.
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, and state universal truths.
• A list separated by commas represents similar elements; in this case, the three phrases involved have different roles in the correct meaning of the sentence.

A. Correct. This answer choice maintains parallelism between “negotiate” and “amend” and between “to negotiate…trade deals” and “to veto them”; please note that in this answer choice “to veto them” is not a third element of the list but a separate element linked with “to negotiate and amend trade deals” through the conjunction “as well as”. Further, Option A correctly uses the simple present tense verb “allows” to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame. Additionally, Option A is free of any redundancy or awkwardness. Moreover, Option A utilizes the superior construction "to negotiate and amend..., as well as to veto", listing the similar elements "negotiate and amend" together and keeping the dissimilar element "veto" separate.

B. Trap. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among “to negotiate”, “amend”, and “to veto trade deals”; please remember, all elements in a list must be parallel. Additionally, Option B uses the inferior construction "to negotiate, amend, and to veto", listing the similar elements "negotiate" and "amend" alongside the dissimilar element "veto"; please remember, a list separated by commas represents similar elements; in this case, the three phrases involved have different roles in the correct meaning of the sentence; Option A uses the superior construction "to negotiate and amend..., as well as to veto", separating the similar and dissimilar elements.

C. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among “to negotiate”, “to amend”, and “veto trade deals”; please remember, all elements in a list must be parallel. Additionally, Option C uses the inferior construction "to negotiate, to amend, and veto", listing the similar elements "negotiate" and "amend" alongside the dissimilar element "veto"; please remember, a list separated by commas represents similar elements; in this case, the three phrases involved have different roles in the correct meaning of the sentence; Option A uses the superior construction "to negotiate and amend..., as well as to veto", separating the similar and dissimilar elements.

D. Trap. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among “to negotiate”, “amend”, and “to veto trade deals”; please remember, all elements in a list must be parallel. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the simple future tense verb “will allow” to refer to an action occurring in the current time frame; please remember, the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frames. Additionally, Option D uses the inferior construction "to negotiate, amend, as well as to veto", listing the similar elements "negotiate" and "amend" alongside the dissimilar element "veto"; please remember, a list separated by commas represents similar elements; in this case, the three phrases involved have different roles in the correct meaning of the sentence; Option A uses the superior construction "to negotiate and amend..., as well as to veto", separating the similar and dissimilar elements.

E. Trap. Although grammatically correct, this answer choice uses the passive voice construction “trade deals to be negotiated, amended, as well as vetoed”, rendering it needlessly indirect and wordy; Choice A is better. Additionally, Option E uses the inferior construction "negotiated, amended, as well as vetoed", listing the similar elements "negotiated" and "amended" alongside the dissimilar element "vetoed"; please remember, a list separated by commas represents similar elements; in this case, the three phrases involved have different roles in the correct meaning of the sentence; Option A uses the superior construction "to negotiate and amend..., as well as to veto", separating the similar and dissimilar elements.

A is the best answer choice.