Stalled free trade deals now on a fast track, White House says (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington – By the time South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak arrives at the White House for a state dinner honoring him next Thursday, President Obama will be able to present him with a ratified US-Korea free trade agreement.

That’s the prediction of White House Chief of Staff William Daley, who confidently told a Washington audience of business leaders and diplomats Wednesday night that Congress will approve a package of three free-trade deals and domestic trade-impact legislation by the middle of next week.

Mr. Daley told guests at the National Foreign Trade Council’s annual black-tie dinner that the four-part trade package – free trade deals with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, plus legislation that renews funding for retraining workers who lose jobs to foreign competition – will move “across the finish line” next Wednesday.

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If he’s right, it will be uncharacteristically quick work for Washington, and will constitute a striking turnaround for trade deals that have languished for years.

One incentive for the Obama administration to get quick passage of the trade package is President Lee’s state visit. The Korea deal is the largest US trade pact since the landmark NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) accord with Canada and Mexico. It is expected to generate about $11 billion of the total $13 billion in new US exports the administration says the three free-trade agreements (FTAs) will deliver. Obama, who fine-tuned the South Korea trade deal originally negotiated under President George W. Bush, did not want to greet his White House guest empty-handed.

Another incentive is that Obama made implementation of the three FTAs part of his jobs bill now before Congress. Daley called the four-part trade package an “essential part of the president’s jobs agenda,” and predicted that the Korea deal alone will “support” 70,000 US jobs and open up markets to allow for creating thousands of new jobs.

Outside of government, business and labor organizations disagree on the jobs impact of the three pending FTAs. The US Chamber of Commerce predicts the deals will prevent hundreds of thousands of job losses by keeping exporting companies humming, while the AFL-CIO says the pacts spell doom for more than 150,000 jobs.

Daley, who helped the Clinton administration usher NAFTA through Congress in 1993, described Obama as coming down in the middle of the polar views on tradea€?s impact. On one hand, the president believes that trade agreements create jobs, but on the other he realizes that a€?there are people who are negatively hurt by trade,a€

He said that explains Obamaa€?s insistence that renewed funding for Trade Adjustment Assistance, the program that enables worker retraining, accompany the three trade deals.

Going a step further, Daley also warned his audience of mostly pro-trade business representatives that this kind of “balanced” approach to trade will be necessary if the American public is to be convinced that more trade liberalization is in the national interest. For example, the administration is currently pursuing a huge Pacifc-region trade agreement.

“We’ve got to reach out to people who are negatively affected, especially at this crisis time,” Daley said. “If we don’t continue to build a consensus, these [trade] fights will get more and more difficult.”

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Most Americans believe U.S. on wrong track: poll (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Economic fears are weighing heavily on Americans, with a large majority saying the United States is on the wrong track and nearly half believing the worst is yet to come, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said Wednesday.

The poll reflected growing anxiety about the U.S. economy and frustration with Washington after a narrowly averted government default last week, a credit rating downgrade by Standard and Poor's, a stock market dive and a stubbornly high 9.1 percent jobless rate.

U.S. President Barack Obama came out bruised but relatively intact from the brutal, weeks-long debt debate. His approval rating dropped to 45 percent from 49 percent from a month ago, according to the poll conducted from Thursday to Monday.

But negative views on the economy are worrisome signs as he looks ahead to his 2012 re-election bid.

The poll found 73 percent of Americans believe the United States is "off on the wrong track," and just one in five, 21 percent, think the country is headed in the right direction.

This is the highest figure measured so far since Reuters/Ipsos began polling American public opinion in February

2009.

And perhaps even worse, the survey of 1,055 adults found that 47 percent believe "the worst is yet to come" in the U.S. economy, an increase of 13 points from a year ago when this question was last raised.

This is the highest measure since March 2009, when concern peaked at 57 percent, at the height of the recession. Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said it reflected "a general sense of unease."

"A difficult economic situation will create a difficult situation for the president when it comes to re-election a year from now," she said. "When the economy is bad, people look for a change."

NEGATIVE VIEW OF TEA PARTY, REPUBLICANS

Republicans appear to be suffering the most from the last-minute debt deal last week that was reached only after anguished negotiations between Obama and congressional leaders.

The survey found 49 percent of Americans held a negative view of Republicans after the deal was reached and 42 percent held a negative opinion of the conservative Tea Party movement. Tea Party conservatives stuck closely to their demand that deficit reduction be handled solely through spending cuts and were willing to risk a default to achieve their aims.

By contrast, 40 percent of those polled saw Democrats in a negative light.

"Coming out of this, the Republicans are I think taking the balance of the blame for the debt deal negotiations," Clark said.

Obama was viewed negatively by 42 percent as a result of the debt deal, while House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top U.S. Republican, was viewed negatively by 37 percent.

The debt agreement that consumed weeks of debate and resulted in a two-staged arrangement to cut spending is not getting rave reviews.

More people surveyed, 53 percent, held a negative view of the compromise agreement, compared to 38 percent who think it is a good deal.

Democrats were more balanced in their views, with 47 percent approving it and 45 percent disliking it, while a majority of independents, 53 percent, and Republicans, 63 percent, did not like it.

"The process was very damaging to Washington," said Clark.

Americans held mixed views on the best way to stimulate economic growth. Cutting spending, 49 percent, and taxing the wealthy, 46 percent, came highest, followed by investment in infrastructure, 34 percent.

Democrats are urging Obama to shift away from the debate over how to reduce America's structural deficits and concentrate solely on creating U.S. jobs. Obama has signaled he plans to do this.

"Shift the focus on job creation," former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson told MSNBC.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,055 adults, including 885 registered voters, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points for all respondents and 3.1 points for registered voters.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)

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