The Senate gave final approval to legislation on Wednesday, June 24, granting President Barack Obama enhanced power to negotiate major trade agreements with Asia and Europe, and sending his biggest legislative priority to the White House for a signature before the end of his term. The vote was 60 to 38.
Obama’s “fast-track” trade agenda has been long pursued by the White House, and has just taken a turning point in officially becoming law.
The flurry of legislative action secured a hard-fought victory for Obama and the Republican congressional leadership. It kept an ambitious agenda on track to complete a sweeping Pacific trade agreement joining 12 countries—from Canada, Australia, Chile and Japan—into a web of rules governing trans-Pacific commerce. Negotiators will also move forward on an accord with European countries, knowing any agreement over the next six years cannot be amended or filibustered by Congress.
Senators were set to take up legislation assisting workers dislocated by international trade accords, attaching it to a popular African trade measure that went to the House on Thursday, June 25 for a final vote.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was among the Republican congressional leaders vital in pushing the agenda forward, with modest help from Democrats.
House Democrats signaled they would support the worker-assistance measure, which they voted down two weeks ago in a tactical bid to derail the trade authority bill. The majority of the House Democrats oppose free-trade agreements, as do labor unions that play important roles in Democratic primaries. They say free-trade agreements kill US jobs, sending them overseas.
However, Obama, major corporate groups, GOP leaders and others said US products must reach more global markets. They argued that anti-trade forces have exaggerated the harm done by the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“This is a critical day for our country,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also calling the trade promotion authority bill “the most important bill we’ll do this year.”
“It’s taken a while to get here, longer than many of us would have liked,” Hatch said. “But anything worth doing takes effort.”
The trade pact would be a high point in a foreign policy that has otherwise been consumed by crisis management, and would give Obama a rare legislative achievement in the Republican-controlled Congress.
“Fast-track puts the interests of massive, multinational corporations over those of American workers, consumers, and voters,” said liberal group MoveOn.org, just as Internet-freedom group Fight for the Future.argued, “Fast track makes it virtually certain that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), and other secret trade deals will become law.”
Many economists say new trade agreements might affect the US economy only modestly, and jobs lost to trade might be roughly offset by jobs created.
Still, Obama and others say greater assertiveness on the US’ part regarding world trade will lessen China’s influence in Asia and elsewhere. Obama added that China could eventually join the Pacific-rim pact, but China would have to abide by its environmental, economic and workplace rules.
Giving Obama fast-track authority for trade negotiations, the Senate took “an important step towards revitalizing our economy, creating more good American jobs, and reasserting our country’s global economic leadership,” US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue said.
“With bipartisan support from Congress,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, fast track “will help America write the rules of the road and ensure that our new global economy will be constructed to allow more hardworking Americans to compete and win.” (With reports from Associated Press, New York Times)
