Obama signs trade, worker assistance bills into law

United States President Barack Obama has signed into law a legislation that gives him “fast-track” power to push ahead on a Pacific Rim trade deal that has been the subject of intense debate in Congress and across America.

Today’s vote follows the Senate approval on Wednesday of the legislation along with passage of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).

On June 24, the Senate approved the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, granting President Obama trade promotion authority, or TPA.

According to the USW and critics of the fast track bill and Trans-Pacific Partnership, Democrats were lured into supporting TPA by attaching trade remedy measures sought by the steel industry to the Trade Assistance Act. The Senate voted 60-37 to advance his bid to take the deal to a “fast-track” negotiating mechanism.

“I would not be signing these bills if I was not absolutely convinced that these pieces of legislation are ultimately good for American workers”, he said.

The second new law provides aid to USA workers who are displaced by free trade laws.

While the Obama administration has branded the TPP “the most progressive trade agreement in history”, labor unions and pro-labor members of Congress have adamantly opposed TPP, fearing a steep loss in manufacturing jobs.

The White House, meanwhile, downplayed the significance of the decision.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday’s votes mark “the end of phase one” in the trade debate, but “the fight will continue”. Styslinger is a member of the Trade Benefits America Coalition, a broad-based group of US business leaders who have been working with Congress and the administration on trade policy.

“To see people gathered in an evening outside on a attractive summer night and to feel whole and to feel accepted and to feel that they had a right to love – that was pretty cool”, Obama said.

TPA is critical for soybean farmers because new trade agreements expand market access as we look to maintain our position at the vanguard of world agricultural trade. In an earlier vote, House Democrats broke rank with the President and tried to slow consideration of TPA by voting against TAA, a program which they have long championed and supported.

Democrats’ opposition to the TAA was finally withdrawn after the TPA was adopted separately, and the workers’ assistance program was included in a trade bill extending preferences to nations in sub-Saharan Africa.