WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have taken steps toward breaking a stalemate that could clear the way for Congress to vote on three key free trade agreements, according to congressional officials and business representatives briefed on the plan. But obstacles remain to action on the trade deals pending since the George W. Bush administration.
The proposal would allow for a renewal of retraining assistance for American workers who lose their jobs because of foreign competition. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, or TAA, would be included in legislation on a coveted trade deal with South Korea.
The White House had threatened to hold up passage of the South Korea pact, along with trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, unless the retraining assistance was renewed.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because no formal announcement has been made.
President Barack Obama frequently cites the three trade pacts as deals that would give a boost to the U.S. economy, in part by making overseas markets more widely available to American companies.
The decision to link the Korean trade deal with extension of TAA could pave the way for early consideration of the three pacts by the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by pro-trade Montana Democrat Max Baucus. It remained unclear if the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles trade matters, would accept that formula for proceeding.
The assistance program was expanded two years ago as part of Obama's stimulus package to include aid for more displaced workers, but the expansion expired in February. Labor unions and some key Democratic lawmakers have demanded the expansion as a condition for supporting the trade deals.
While Republicans have typically been supportive of the TAA program, several GOP lawmakers had expressed concerns that the level of spending under the 2009 expansion is no longer sustainable given the Capitol Hill negotiations on debt and deficit.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said that TAA should be separate from consideration of the trade agreements.
The U.S. signed the trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia in 2007 under President George W. Bush. But the then-Democratic-led Congress never brought the agreements up for vote, giving the Obama administration time to renegotiate areas it found objectionable.
U.S. trade officials spent months negotiating outstanding issues on the pacts, reaching an agreement with South Korea in December. The pact would support up to 70,000 U.S. jobs, according to the administration.
Deals were struck this spring with Panama and Colombia, though all three agreements need congressional approval before they can be implemented.
The top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Sander Levin of Michigan, said Monday that he would oppose the trade agreement with Colombia if it did not include specific language committing Colombia to carry out an action plan for protecting worker rights and ending violence against union organizers.
Suppression of worker rights in Colombia has been the main reason that many Democrats, labor groups and human rights groups have opposed the Colombia deal, which according to some estimates would boost the U.S. economy by $2.5 billion a year.
Levin and others have hailed the Colombian government for taking steps to fulfill obligations outlined in the action plan and said Monday that "refusal to refer to the Action Plan on Worker Rights in the implementing language is a fatal flaw."
Two other House Democrats, George Miller of California and James McGovern of Massachusetts, added later that failure to refer to the plan in the trade bill would "be a huge blow against Colombian workers" and "erase a major piece of leverage this country had to ensure change in Colombia."
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Associated Press writer Jim Abrams contributed to this report.
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