WASHINGTON: US lawmakers narrowly approved legislation key to securing a hallmark Pacific trade deal, partly reversing a defeat less than a week before, in a boost to President Barack Obama’s goal of strengthening US economic ties with Asia.
The House of Representatives voted 218 to 208 to give the White House authority to close trade deals such as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which encompasses 40% of the global economy and is close to completion.
But the bill, a stripped-down version of legislation which failed at a vote last week, must now go back to the Senate for approval, where a vote is likely next week.
The House has been wrestling for weeks with fast-track authority, which lets lawmakers set negotiating objectives for trade deals, such as the TPP, but restricts them to a yes-or-no vote on the finished agreement.
Democrats last week dramatically rejected a personal appeal from Obama to back legislation central to his hallmark Pacific Rim trade deal by voting down a companion measure to renew an expiring program to help workers hurt by trade.
That measure was cut from the bill approved on Thursday, but the change from the original legislation ensures a return to the Senate, delaying final passage further.
In debate before the vote, many Democrats lined up on the House floor to voice their anger with Obama’s trade initiative.
“This thing is modeled after Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement), which cost us 5m jobs,” said veteran Democratic representative Louise Slaughter.
Republicans, weary of the long struggle to pass fast-track, urged the House to vote and move on. “Enacting trade promotion authority is critical for our economy and for our national security, and so we’re going to get it done here today,” Ways and Means Committee chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican, said.
Clock ticking
Democratic senator Ron Wyden told Reuters pro-trade Democrats were determined to pass both fast-track and the worker aid program and were working on a plan to achieve that goal.
House speaker John Boehner said he hoped the Senate would soon take up fast-track and the worker aid program, which would be tacked on to a bill renewing trade benefits for African countries.
But members of the Congressional Black Caucus have warned against using the bill as a “bargaining chip” and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who voted against fast-track, said she did not see a path forward for the worker aid program.
Many Democrats, who have strong links to trade unions, fear trade deals such as the TPP will cost US jobs as employers chase lower costs in signatory countries.
The House vote is a good sign for the TPP, which would harmonize standards on issues like intellectual property and labor protections and lower trade barriers among the dozen emerging and developed countries.
Approval of the TPP would open new markets for major US exporters such as Boeing, Ford, IBM, Caterpillar, Merck and Cisco, policy analysts said.
Negotiators are under pressure to finish the pact, which is already more than five years in the making, to allow the TPP to clear Congress before 2016 US presidential election campaigns dominate the agenda.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has yet to take a stand on the deal, but the former secretary of state has said Obama should take on board legitimate concerns expressed by fellow Democrats.
Some TPP partner countries, including Japan and Canada, want fast track in place before making final offers on the trade deal, which economists estimate would boost the global economy by almost $300bn a year.
Trade deals are controversial in the US, which has a share of exports to gross domestic product roughly half that of China, partly because of the country’s past experience with Nafta.
That pact freed up trade between the US, Canada and Mexico and, more than two decades later, is blamed by many for US factory closures and job losses and has soured sentiment toward the TPP.
