SENATE PASSES FREE TRADE BILL, HOUSE REMIANS BIGGER HURDLE
Stephen Dinana - The Washington Times
Senators passed the first major free trade bill in years late Friday, with more than a dozen pro-trade Democrats linking arms with most Republicans to grant President Obama a major legislative victory — and powers to conclude a Pacific trade deal.
The legislation, which cleared on a 62-37 vote, still needs House action, and that is likely to be a tougher test, with Democrats in the lower chamber less inclined toward free trade.
But the vote is still a substantial victory for Mr. Obama, who has staked his personal prestige on winning a legacy-enhancing trade deal known as the Trans Pacific Partnership. Friday’s vote was on fast-track negotiating powers, known as Trade Promotion Authority, that will allow Mr. Obama to complete negotiations on the 12-nation TPP.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who led the fight for the TPA, said just ahead of the vote on what he called “likely the most important bill we’ll pass this year.”
TPA lays out the conditions for Mr. Obama to complete negotiations on the TPP and any other trade deals he wants to reach. It sets environmental and labor standards that must be observed in any deal, and creates a set time period for Congress to consider and vote on whatever final agreement the president submits.
Friday’s vote on passage anticlimactic. The bigger test came a few hours earlier on an amendment that would have injected language into the fast-track powers requiring the administration to punish other countries deemed guilty of keeping their currency rates artificially low versus the dollar in order to gain an export advantage. A lower currency makes a country’s exports more attractive to others, and makes imports less attractive to its own residents.
President Obama had said if the provision had been approved, he would have been forced to veto the fast-track trade bill he’s desperately seeking from Congress, since it would scuttle chances for a grant Pacific free trade pact.
But in a 51-48 vote senators bowed to his wishes, defeating an effort to add in the manipulation language and preserving the core of the fast-track trade deal.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democrat who organized the pro-trade members of his party during the debate, said this deal is better than previous fast-track bills, and will insist on better terms for the U.S. than previous agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
He said there has been too much secrecy surrounding the negotiations over the TPP, but said the fast-track bill will require that the public and Congress have nearly 4 months to review it or any other final trade deal before it is put up for a vote.
Opponents, though, said they aren’t convinced this version of fast-track will produce any better outcome than NAFTA or previous deals.
“Tonight’s vote is a massive blow to workers and businesses across the country,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.
The trade fight is as much a test of Mr. Obama’s legislative powers as it is of support for trade. The president has made the fight personal, taking on major liberal figures such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat. And Mr. Obama has pleaded with his liberal base to trust him that he can pursue free trade the right way.
“If done right, these agreements are vital to expanding opportunities for the middle class, leveling the playing field for American workers, and establishing rules for the global economy that help our businesses grow and hire by selling goods Made in America to the rest of the world,” he said after Friday’s vote.