Baucus: Worker help should be paired with trade deals

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Wednesday that an expired aid program for U.S. workers hurt by trade should be paired with pending trade deals.

Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the Colombia trade agreement, the panel chairman said the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program needs to be renewed as Congress considers long-stalled trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

“I think it’s clear that we need trade adjustment assistance enacted in tandem with this FTA,” Baucus said, referring to the Colombia free trade agreement. “As far as I’m concerned, the two must go together, one way or another.”

From his opening remarks earlier in the hearing, Baucus said all three deals need to come “in tandem” with the aid program’s renewal.

“To do so, we must ensure that Congress enacts a robust, long-term extension of trade adjustment assistance in tandem with the FTAs,” Baucus said.

That position might not sit well with Republicans who have pushed for approval of all three pending trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea as soon as possible. It also comes as Washington has tried to cut back on government spending due to concerns over the federal deficit.

At the hearing, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the committee’s ranking member, said the Obama administration was setting preconditions before submitting the agreements to Congress for a vote.

“You appear to be conditioning the submission of the agreement on congressional consideration of totally unrelated matters, such as [permanent normal trade relations] for Russia and extension of TAA,” Hatch said.

In her opening testimony, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Shapiro said the Obama administration wants the trade assistance program renewed this year.

While the White House has moved aggressively toward passing all three trade deals this summer, lobbyists favoring trade have said TAA should win congressional approval around the same time as the pending agreements. The aid program has had bipartisan support in the past, but it expired earlier this year. 

Like Baucus, other Senate Democrats said TAA needs to be renewed. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said reauthorization of the aid program “should have been done by now.”

The Colombia deal has been held up over concerns about the country’s poor record of violence against trade unionists. The Obama administration reached a labor action plan with the Colombian government to help improve that record.

Nevertheless, unions still oppose the deal, with Jeff Vogt, the AFL-CIO’s deputy director of its international affairs department, telling senators that anti-union violence in Colombia “remains at alarming levels.”

Colombia has already met its first set of commitments under the three-phase plan, which triggered talks between administration officials and Congress on implementing legislation for the trade deal.

Baucus said if Colombia meets its next set of commitments, Congress could be voting on the trade deal after mid-June.

“The second stage of commitments are due by June 15. Once these are met, we understand that the administration will be prepared to formally submit the FTA to Congress for a vote,” Baucus said in his opening remarks.

- Vicki Needham contributed to this report.