White House to work hard for fast-track authority in trade deals

The Obama administration will work hard to secure a bill for the so-called fast-track authority in negotiating trade deals, said the White House on Thursday.

"We don't take anything for granted ... So we're going to work this hard to make sure that we get it," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said during an event held by Politico.

McDonough said Obama is convinced that the legislation is necessary to conclude the trade deals with Asia and Europe currently under negotiation.

The Obama administration is engaged in two ambitious and difficult trade negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union, in a bid to write new rules of trade for the 21st century.

The fast-track authority, formally known as trade promotion authority, empowers the president to negotiate trade deals and then present them to Congress for up-or-down votes, with no amendments allowed. Without such authority, many trade analysts say, Obama's hopes to enact trade deals before he leaves office will be doomed.

While trade has emerged in recent weeks as one of the few areas where Obama and the leaders of the Republican-controlled Congress agree, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers and activists from labor unions and environmental groups opposes granting Obama that authority, arguing that those trade deals have hurt U.S. workers and increased income inequality.

"I've always been suspicious in my entire career in Congress of these trade agreements. I don't support fast track," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters on Thursday. "I have not been shown that these trade agreements have helped the middle class."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Thursday that he aims to introduce a bill granting the president "fast-track" authority by the end of January and may move the bill to the Senate floor in March.

The White House has deployed Cabinet secretaries to lobby lawmakers. It is still unclear whether the legislation could get enough votes for passage in both houses of Congress. Endi