Obama steps up pitch for trade, exports, targets Democrats

Washington, Feb 27: President Barack Obama has stepped up his campaign for expanding exports and negotiating new trade deals in Asia and Europe, a rare spot of common ground with Republicans and a raw point of friction with Democrats.

Obama is pushing his trade themes in interviews with television stations from states represented by the handful of Democratic senators who may be willing to side with the president on his plans for new commerce agreements.

"There have been times in the past where some of the trade deals didn't work out for particular sectors in particular communities," Obama told KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri.

"Which is why we're organizing trade in the Asia Pacific region, the fastest growing region in the world, to make sure you have strong enforceable labor provisions, make sure you have strong enforceable environmental provisions, make sure you have a level playing field."

Before making those deals, however, Obama wants authority to negotiate trade agreements that Congress can only approve or reject, but not amend. Presidents have had an increasingly tough time getting that authority from Congress; Bill Clinton had to buck his party to win it and George W Bush got it by a single vote. But Obama's task may be even tougher.

"He has a harder challenge because the last Democratic president (Clinton) who did this did it in the context of a historic economic boom, a period in which globalization still looked like it had enormous upsides with relatively little downside," said Rob Shapiro, a former senior Commerce Department official and economic adviser to President Clinton.

"The upsides are still there, but the downsides have become more apparent."

The Obama administration yesterday released data promoting the role of exports in the economic recovery. According to the White House, exports supported about 11.3 million jobs in 2013, an increase of 1.6 million over 2009. For Obama, connecting trade to jobs is a key sales pitch because past trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, have been blamed for job losses and for businesses moving overseas.

The administration is also making the case that a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that would include Japan, Australia and Vietnam in the deal, also would serve the nation's economic security interests by providing a bulwark against China. "China is out there negotiating free trade agreements with many of these same countries," said Maurice Obstfeld, a member of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

"These agreements are not based on enforceable labor standards, enforceable environmental standards, and what we would like to do is level up the playing field rather than leave it to others to level down the playing field."

AP