Trade-powers accord forged

If Congress agrees, bill gives Obama fast-track authority

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (from left) speaks with Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., before the start of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday on the “fast track” trade bill.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (from left) speaks with Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., before the start of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday on the “fast track” trade bill.

WASHINGTON -- The leaders of Congress' tax-writing committees reached agreement Thursday on legislation to give President Barack Obama "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade accord with 11 Pacific nations.

The "trade promotion authority" bill would give Congress the power to vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership once it is completed but would deny lawmakers the chance to amend what would be the largest trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA was signed in 1992.

Obama quickly said he will sign the bill if Congress passes it.

"I look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to pass this bill, seize this opportunity, and support more good American jobs with the wages and benefits hardworking families deserve," he said.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee -- both Republicans -- had to agree to stringent requirements for the trade deal to win over Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the finance panel.

Those requirements included a human-rights negotiating objective that has never existed in trade agreements, according to lawmakers involved in the talks.

The legislation also would make any final trade agreement public for 60 days before the president signs it and up to four months before Congress votes on it.

If the agreement, negotiated by the U.S. Trade Representative, fails to meet the objectives laid out by Congress -- on labor, environmental and human-rights standards -- a 60-vote majority in the Senate could shut off the "fast-track" trade rules and open the deal to amendments.

"We got assurances," said Rep. Dave Reichert, that the U.S. Trade Representative "and the president will be negotiating within the parameters defined by Congress." Reichert, R-Wash., is a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Referring to the trade promotion authority, he added: "And if those parameters are somehow or in some way violated during the negotiations, if we get a product that's not adhering to the TPA [trade promotion authority] agreement, then we have switches where we can cut it off."

Reichert said the Ways and Means Committee would formally draft the legislation next week.

Even with those concessions, the fight to get the trade promotion bill to the president's desk likely will be difficult. Many prominent Democrats have come out against it. It's one of the biggest priorities of the president. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, was notably absent from the trade negotiations.

Six Senate Democrats led by New York's Charles Schumer, the party's third-ranking leader, criticized the expedited consideration of trade accords in a joint statement Thursday.

"Congress should undergo a thorough and deliberative committee process for debating trade agreements," the statement said.

The statement also was signed by Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.

Brown and other Democrats who are aligned with organized labor are often highly suspicious of, or even hostile to, trade legislation. They argue that such measures facilitate agreements that wind up destroying jobs in the U.S. and creating jobs in nations that lack the environmental and worker-safety protections that exist here.

"Negotiating objectives without enforcement mechanisms don't get you very far," Brown said.

"Over and over again, we've been told that trade deals will create jobs and better protect workers and the environment," Casey said. "Those promises have never come to fruition."

The AFL-CIO and virtually every major union have vowed a fierce fight, including a six-figure advertising campaign to pressure 16 selected senators and 36 House members to oppose trade promotion authority, the AFL-CIO announced Thursday.

"We can't afford to pass fast-track, which would lead to more lost jobs and lower wages," said Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president. "We want Congress to keep its leverage over trade negotiations -- not rubber-stamp a deal that delivers profits for global corporations, but not good jobs for working people."

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said the bill "would allow secret trade pacts to sail through Congress with no chance to alter them. That's bad for American workers as well as their families."

Lawmakers introduced the legislation after reaching agreement on a separate bill to aid workers who lose their jobs as a result of foreign trade. Some lawmakers want to move the aid bill alongside the fast-track measure.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which describes itself as the nation's largest business advocacy group, came out in favor of the bill and signaled that it would lobby for passage.

"With facts and arguments, we'll win this trade debate," the Washington-based group said in an email.

The Republican leadership is firmly behind the trade authority bill, an exception to the otherwise divisive relationship between Obama and congressional Republicans. But a minority of Republicans are reluctant to cede almost any type of authority to the president.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, expressed skepticism Thursday, saying, "We have reason to be concerned about overreach from this administration."

Whether Republican leaders can get their troops in line, and how Obama can round up enough Democratic votes for the measure, is emerging as one of the larger legislative questions of the year.

Reichert said only 15-20 Democrats so far support it in the House. Last year, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he would need 50.

Boehner applauded the deal Thursday but said much of the burden for its success rests with Obama.

"He must secure the support from his own party that's needed to ensure strong, bipartisan passage," Boehner said in a statement, which was echoed by the Chamber of Commerce.

At a finance committee hearing Thursday morning, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Michael Froman, the trade representative, pleaded for "fast-track" trade authority.

Having fast-track authority is seen as necessary for the Obama administration to wrap up the deal and alleviate concerns of other Pacific Rim countries, including Japan, Canada and Mexico.

"TPA sends a strong signal to our trading partners that Congress and the administration speak with one voice to the rest of the world on our priorities," Lew testified.

Hatch called the deal "the most powerful tool in Congress' trade arsenal" to secure "some of the most ambitious trade agreements in our nation's history."

Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times; by Don Lee of the Tribune News Service; by Laurie Kellman of The Associated Press; and by Carter Dougherty, Billy House, Erik Wasson and Aya Takada of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 04/17/2015

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