Obama urged to seek power for free-trade deals by ally Daschle
Bloomberg | September 19, 2011
Obama urged to seek power for free-trade deals by ally Daschle
By Eric Martin
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama should seek more power from Congress to negotiate free-trade agreements, according to a panel that included former Senator Tom Daschle, an adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign.
The Council on Foreign Relations trade task force, led by Daschle and Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff under Republican President George W. Bush, called for the administration to adopt a trade strategy with stepped-up enforcement of international rules and retraining for workers hurt by overseas competition. Obama was also urged to seek a renewal of “fast-track” authority for particular trade deals to speed action in Congress.
“The United States should implement a pro-America trade policy that brings to a greater number of Americans more of the benefits of economic growth around the world,” the panel said in a report released today. “Start by pushing harder for ratification of the three free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, still awaiting passage in Congress.”
Congress is set to start work today on actions that may clear the way for Obama to send lawmakers the three agreements signed under Bush. A procedural vote in the Senate is the first step toward renewing tariff preferences on goods from developing nations and extending a program that helps workers who lose their jobs to overseas competition. Passing a bill for the aid, known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, would meet a condition Obama set for sending the trade deals to Congress.
Investment initiative
The council’s panel also recommended that the U.S. adopt a national investment initiative to create higher-paying jobs and increase export financing and the government’s role in supporting overseas sales by U.S. companies.
Obama should ask on a case-by-case basis for fast-track authority, intended to require that Congress act on trade agreements within a limited time and without changes after the president submits them. The authority expired after Democrats gained control of Congress under Bush in 2007, and Obama hasn’t requested its renewal.
While some version of fast-track authority should be made permanent in the long-run, that would “almost certainly trigger an all-out ideological struggle over U.S. trade policy” in the current political climate, the panel said.
Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, was the party’s Senate leader from 1995 until his defeat in 2004, and then became national co-chairman of Obama’s presidential campaign. Nominated by Obama to be secretary of health and human services, Daschle withdrew after admitting errors on his U.S. taxes.
Ford, Stern, Lott
Panel members who endorsed the report’s general findings included former Democratic Representative Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee; Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union until last year; and former Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, Republican leader from 1996 until 2002.
Lott expressed concern about the nation’s ability to pay for broader assistance to workers hurt by trade. Stern said he wasn’t as convinced as other participants of the extent to which trade has benefited the U.S. and urged that trade policy include efforts to promote domestic products.
Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union and a panelist, didn’t endorse the final report, saying many of the recommendations reinforce a strategy that has favored corporate interests at the expense of workers.
