The Senate hit the exact number of votes needed to avoid a filibuster on Tuesday, which makes the agenda well positioned to become law

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Global free trade talks were shunted back on track on Tuesday after the US Senate voted by the tightest of margins for a procedural motion that deprives Democratic opponents of their last big chance to block so-called “fast-track” negotiating authority for the president.



The cloture vote to bring debate to a close, which needed 60 votes and passed by 60 to 37, marks the conclusion of an unexpectedly spirited fight against free trade by a coalition of Democrats and union interests concerned at the decline of US manufacturing.

But it represents a victory for Barack Obama, who had been forced to join forces with Republicans after two earlier refusals to give him fast-track negotiating authority – which would help the president pass trade deals more easily – threatened to derail not just his trade agenda but the future of wider talks involving dozens of Asian and European countries.

If, as expected, the Senate also votes in favour of final passage of the trade promotion authority (TPA) on Wednesday – a vote that requires only a straight majority of 51 rather than the 60 needed for cloture – it will reach the president’s desk for his signature by the end of the week.

Without this so-called “fast-track” authority, which guarantees a simple majority vote in Congress when the final trade deals return to the legislature, the future of both the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) talks with Asia and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with Europe were in jeopardy.

Nevertheless, the tactics needed to overcome Democratic opposition in the Senate and House of Representatives may possibly leave Obama facing one last break with his party when he signs the bill.

In order to respond to the recent defeat in the House of Representatives, the bill’s managers stripped out the accompanying Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) legislation, which would compensate US workers hit by cheap foreign imports.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, promised this would still get the chance to pass as a separate bill later in the week.

“If we trust each other and work together, by the end of the week the president will have TPA and TAA … on his desk,” said McConnell.

But there is no guarantee enough Republicans in either the House or Senate will back such legislation, which many of them regard as outdated and unnecessary intervention in the free market, for it to pass.

For this, and other reasons, Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown called Tuesday’s cloture vote “shameful”, arguing that his colleagues were giving up their last chance to exert leverage over the trade negotiations.

Thirteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting for cloture on TPA, including a number of moderates who had previously opposed a package that included TAA when it passed the Senate in May.

Conversely, five Republicans – including presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul – joined the minority leader, Harry Reid, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and 30 others in voting against cloture.

Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who has led the pro-trade wing of the party, insisted there would be no betrayal on the outstanding issue of trade adjustment assistance, following positive talks with House Republican Paul Ryan on Monday night.

“TAA is an absolutely must-pass bill and I am confident it is going to get through Congress to the president’s desk,” said Wyden.

The White House welcomed the breakthrough after weeks of deadlock on Capitol Hill but refused to be drawn on whether the president’s signature on the bill would be contingent upon passage of TAA.

Barack Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, declined to say whether the president would sign TPA the moment it arrived on his desk, or wait to see if the TAA legislation would be passed first. “I don’t have a timeframe to lay out for you right now as to when the president will sign one bill or the other,” Earnest said.

However, he said the White House was confident that TAA legislation – intended as a sweetener to make the trade promotion legislation more palatable to Democrats – would gain passage through Congress “this week”.

Both McConnell and the House speaker, John Boehner, he said, had committed to ensuring the tandem legislation, which enjoys bipartisan support.

Now that the TPA has overcome a critical hurdle, Earnest added, “there would be no reason” for Democrats to block accompanying legislation that would help an estimated 100,000 workers.

“It will be the last chance for Democrats to not just extend that critically important program, but also to substantially expand it,” he added.

