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WASHINGTON, Mar 28 (Xinhua): For the first time in his six
years in the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama is facing a tougher sell
to his fellow Democrats rather than pro-trade Republicans as the administration
steps up efforts to push for ambitious trade agenda this year.
The administration aims to conclude the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) free trade talks with 11 other countries in the Asia-Pacific
region and make substantial progress in the Trans- Atlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the European Union in 2015,
cementing a trade legacy before public attention shifts to the 2016
presidential election.
Which officials of the Obama administration have touted new trade
deals with Asia and Europe as a means to create jobs and write the rules of
international trade, many liberal Democrats and activists from labor unions
remain skeptical, expressing concerns that past trade deals have hurt U.S.
workers and increased income inequality.
“The administration’s focus now is the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, but they have not done a very good job persuading the Congress. We’re
seeing a lot of opposition in the Congress to the TPP and to the trade
promotion authority (TPA),” C. Fred Bergsten, senior fellow and director
emeritus of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics
(PIIE), told Xinhua.
The TPA, also known as Fast Track, empowers the president to
negotiate trade deals and then the president to negotiate trade deals and then
the president to negotiate trade deals and then present them to Congress for
up-or-down votes, with no amendments allowed. Without such authority, many
trade analysts say, Obama’s hopes to enact
trade deals before he leaves office would
be doomed.
“I think the Obama administration has made very clear that
they would like to see the passage of trade promotion authority before the
conclusion of the Trans-Partnership,” said Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at the
PIIE who leads the institutional authority in this area.
Regarding prospects for the passage of TPA, Bergsten said, “It’s
still somewhat up in the air more in the House than the Senate…. That’s were
explaining the importance of trade to U.S. economy, the importance of trade to U.S.
foreign policy, and why TPP, hopefully a broader agreement in Asia beyond that, is very much in U.S. interests.”
U.S. Trade Representative Mike Forman, Treasury Secretary
Jacob Lew, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and
other cabinet officials have held several classified meetings with House
Democrats on TPP negotiations in recent weeks, in a bid to boost support for
the Democratic Party.
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