Obama needs to push harder on trade

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama used the occasion of his State of the Union address last week to promote his global trade agenda and to explain how the proposed trade deals such as the Tran-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 12 Latin American and Asian countries and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being negotiated with the European Union would help strengthen the American economy and benefit members of the middle class.

More specifically, he urged lawmakers to extend to him the trade promotion authority (TPA) aka "fast-track" that would allow the White House to conclude the negotiations over the TPP and the TTIP and to bring them before Congress for an "up" and "down" vote.

While the pro-business Republicans who now control the House of Representatives and the Senate want to see the two trade bills approved, a majority of Democrats in Congress, backed by the labour unions and environmentalist groups, oppose the White House's ambitious trade policies which they contend would result in the loss of American jobs to emerging economies.