After Lobbying by Obama, Senate Agrees to Vote on Trade Bill After All
By JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders, after personal intercessions by President Obama, reached an agreement Wednesday on a path to grant the president accelerated power to complete a sweeping trade accord ringing the Pacific Ocean — just a day after fellow Democrats had blocked him.

The larger aim is to secure a 12-nation agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, spanning the Pacific from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia and encompassing 40 percent of the world’s economic output. Mr. Obama sees the pact as a central part of his economic legacy, the largest trade deal in two decades and the realization of his foreign policy pivot toward Asia.

It also means money. Major American business interests, from Nike to Boeing and Hollywood to Silicon Valley, want the deal badly. Labor and environmental groups see it as a threat to American workers at the expense of profits.

A series of trade-related votes will begin Thursday and stretch well into next week. The trade promotion authority would give the president the ability to move more quickly on the deal, leaving Congress with the power to vote up or down on the agreement but with no ability to amend it.

While the pathway to passage became clearer Wednesday, it is still treacherous. Most Senate Democrats will ultimately oppose the trade promotion bill, and with the stated opposition of Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, both Republicans, there are now louder rumblings on the president’s right flank.

“Now is not the time to celebrate,” said Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Finance Committee chairman. “While this agreement solves a temporary procedural issue, now is when the real work begins.”

Yet Mr. Obama showed he does have sway among fractious Democrats. A long White House meeting with 10 Democrats considered pro trade helped force the Senate to compromise. In the end, the Democrats withdrew their demand that trade enforcement measures be integrated into trade promotion authority before the Senate began considering the measure.

“The so-called pro trade Democrats had a chat with the president for a couple of hours, and I think that helped,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican. “I wish he’d had that chat with them before the first failed vote.”

Under the deal, the Senate will vote Thursday, first on a contentious trade enforcement bill that includes new remedies to counter currency manipulation by trading partners, and then on an extension of an African trade agreement.

The Senate would then begin debate Thursday evening on trade promotion authority.

The agreement gives Democrats a chance to demonstrate broad, bipartisan support for a get-tough approach on countries that intentionally keep the value of their currency low to make their exports cheaper, which then effectively raises the cost of American-made goods. But if that separate bill can get through the House, it would then be vetoed by the president, who believes it would destroy the trade talks.

For the most ardent opponents of Mr. Obama’s trade push, the deal means delay, which can be perilous for trade negotiators. Under the terms of the trade promotion legislation, Congress could not consider a final Pacific trade deal for four months after it was completed, pushing it further into the election season, when major legislative initiatives become far more difficult. Final negotiations would not begin unless and until Congress approved the accelerated authority.

Republicans succeeded in fending off a Democratic push to attach the currency measure to trade promotion authority itself. The measure has the support of a strong majority in the Senate, including Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio and a United States trade representative in the administration of President George W. Bush. American automakers and some economists believe a currency measure is vital to a trade agreement that is intended to protect the interests of American workers.

Mr. Portman went to the Senate floor Wednesday evening and promised that he would push for a currency provision on the trade promotion bill itself. “Part of a level playing field is making sure countries don’t manipulate their currency,” he said.

But the White House fears that making the accelerated authority contingent on currency policy alterations could scare important partners from the negotiating table, including Japan, the second-largest Trans-Pacific partner.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, insisted on a legislative approach that would “provide our Democratic colleagues with a sensible way forward without killing the bill,” he said as he presented the plan on the Senate floor.

For his part, Mr. Obama preserved a clean path toward the Pacific trade deal, which includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, as well as the United States. “Yesterday, we made it clear we didn’t accept merely a fast-track foreign trade agreements,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader. “We must also enforce the trade agreements we make. The proposal today provides that path forward.”

Mr. Obama had rankled Mr. Reid and some other Democrats by singling out members of their party by name, criticizing them for their opposition to the deal. The president was notably critical of Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, whom he called “absolutely wrong” for her views.

For all the drama, Senate Democrats may have ended up where they started, with tough trade enforcement provisions that are broadly supported but without a vehicle to get them into law. Lawmakers from both parties say that even if the enforcement and currency bill passes Thursday, they may try to break off some provisions as amendments to the trade promotion bill that Mr. Obama must sign into law.

Those measures include the creation of an interagency trade enforcement center and a system to respond faster to unfair trade practices. Another would require Customs and Border Protection to quickly investigate allegations of customs duty evasion.

大逆轉！美TPA可望闖關

攸關「跨太平洋夥伴協定」（TPP）談判的「貿易促進授權」（TPA）法案立法出現轉折！美國聯邦參議院民主、共和黨達成共識，將有爭議的法案與TPA切割處理，十四日下午二度針對TPA進行程序表決，法案可望闖關成功。

參議院共和黨的多數黨領袖麥康諾與民主黨的少數黨領袖芮德十三日宣布，雙方已同意將給予非洲進口商品優惠的「非洲成長與機會法案」（AGOA）、針對蓄意操縱貨幣的國家實施懲罰性關稅的「關稅法案」單獨投票表決，再另外對TPA與協助產業轉型與輔導勞工轉業的「貿易調整協助計畫」（TAA）併案進行程序表決。

參議院十二日首度針對TPA進行程序表決，民主黨議員主張TPA要與其他三項法案併案處理，但白宮和共和黨都反對納入操縱貨幣懲罰法案，導致表決未達六十票的門檻，法案因此遭民主黨議員以冗長發言方式拖延，無法進行實質審；此舉形同把同為民主黨的總統歐巴馬狠甩一巴掌。

不過，參院在十二日的表決失利後，歐巴馬立刻邀集十名民主黨參議員到白宮開會因應。與會者轉述，會議歷時兩個小時，歐巴馬在會中清楚表明他希望參院通過TPA，也同意接受議員所提關於貿易協定的強制措施，惟獨不能接受操縱貨幣法案。在白宮與同黨參議員各退一步之下，情況因此出現轉圜。

對於民主黨參議員經過一天後態度丕變，共和黨議員不忘「見縫插針」。共和黨參議員修恩說，「看到今天上午的標題，民主黨人挑戰總統、總統的挫敗等，這讓他們處於難堪的處境；我覺得他們玩得太過頭了，如今他們回到現實，現在必須要做的就是在過程中挽回面子。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/us/path-to-pacific-trade-deal-may-open-in-senate-after-all.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/usa/20150514/c14trade/zh-hant/

2015-05-15．聯合報．A17．國際．華盛頓記者賴昭穎