Democratic lawmakers, labor unions and environmental groups are quickly mounting a campaign to deny Obama’s request for authority to fast-track new deals with Pacific Rim countries and the European Union through Congress without amendments.
It’s a power that’s absolutely crucial to Obama’s ability to get those deals done: Foreign leaders won’t take the political risk of signing anything if they fear they’ll have to renegotiate it bit-by-bit once the deal reaches Capitol Hill.
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But liberals say they’re tired of being shut out of the negotiations, and they don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past — like the Bill Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement, which Democrats contend has drained away manufacturing jobs.
“We are fighting for the future of middle class families. That is what this debate is all about,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, said Wednesday, echoing the economic theme that underpinned Obama’s speech.
Obama’s request for fast-track authority comes as U.S. trade negotiators try to hammer out a final agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-country pact that would help the United States counter China’s economic rise in the Asia-Pacific.
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Hatch, now the finance committee’s chairman, is trying to jump-start the process with a hearing he’s scheduled for Jan. 27 featuring U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, the Obama administration’s lead negotiator.
Even if Obama gets the fast-track authority — or “trade promotion authority” — legislation that he wants, it doesn’t mean deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be in place before he leaves office.
Japan’s own political troubles have delayed progress in the negotiations for months, and even once a final agreement is reached, the countries involved would have to go through a complicated process of evaluating the final details and translating it into the languages of each of the countries involved in the talks.
Then, each country would have to ratify it — and many of the benefits might be phased in over a long-range period.
As a result, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is likely to become a hot topic in the 2016 presidential race, where the Democratic candidate could be Hillary Clinton, who was Obama’s secretary of state during parts of the negotiations.
