Trade assistance gets boost

Legislation aimed at helping workers hurt by increased trade is getting a boost from corporate America.

Citi , IBM and General Motors are among the members of a business coalition pressing for an overhaul and expansion of the federal trade adjustment assistance (TAA) program that provides worker re-training and a health insurance subsidy to people who lose their jobs because of increased trade.

{mosads}The Trade and American Competitiveness Coalition also is not insisting on a link between the TAA bill and passage of trade deals, including the controversial Colombia free trade agreement.

“Everyone is saying do TAA now,” said Cal Cohen, president of the Emergency Committee for International Trade (ECAT).

Business groups are motivated in part by the plummeting popularity of international trade, which has only made moving trade deals through Congress more difficult. Lobbyists for companies and trade associations in the competitiveness coalition make no secret of the fact that they hope to re-build support for trade deals by supporting other measures that will make American workers more competitive.

Those efforts will likely now be on hold until next year. On Friday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) postponed a planned markup of his TAA bill this week until at least September. Baucus said the delay was due to Republican pressure to attach the Colombia trade deal to the bill.

Some longtime supporters of TAA criticize business as Johnnies-come-lately to the issue.

When Republicans had a majority in the House, business groups supported the GOP strategy of trying to win trade votes on the backs of Republicans alone. In 2002, when Senate Democrats tied an overhaul of TAA to “fast-track” legislation that made it easier for President Bush to negotiate trade deals, business support for TAA was an afterthought, these critics said.

“Too much of their support has not been much more than rhetoric,” said Howard Rosen, executive director of the TAA coalition. “It’s a lost opportunity because businesses could be very influential on this.”

Critics argue big business’s support for TAA has always been uneven. TAA was first proposed decades ago at the behest of the corporate world, but as the trade environment changed and free trade agreements became increasingly controversial, business’s support for TAA slackened.

Some business representatives strongly disputed this notion. “This is not something we suddenly discovered,” said Cohen. He argues the main difference between years past and the new effort is that business is speaking with one voice on TAA.

However, another corporate lobbyist described business as having grown “lazy” on the issue.

This source said corporations and trade associations  accepted they could win congressional votes on trade agreements by a single vote, and failed to work hard for additional programs that would ensure Americans were competitive with foreign companies.

A Baucus aide said business has given real support to this year’s TAA bill.

“The business community did good things to support trade adjustment assistance, not the least of which was the formation of the TAA coalition,” the aide said. “American businesses trying to adapt to the new global economy need skilled workers with up-to-date training, so it makes sense that the business community put resources towards TAA as a centerpiece of its trade agenda.”

Baucus’s proposed enhancement of TAA would make several changes to the program. Most notably, it would extend TAA benefits to service industry workers. This is intended to respond to the growing movement of services jobs, and would expand the cost of the program.

It also would cover more workers by extending TAA to those who lose their jobs because of increased imports. This would cover workers who lose their jobs to countries the U.S. has trade agreements with, as well as workers who are laid off because their companies move to China or India.

“It’s by far the biggest, most comprehensive change to the program since it existed,” said lobbyist Brian Pomper of Parven Pomper Strategies, a former Baucus staffer.

In a statement on Friday, Baucus said TAA should not be linked to the Colombia deal, and suggested the trade pact could not move until TAA was approved. He also said Congress should approve the Colombia deal, but only after completing work on TAA.

“I have said all year that trade adjustment assistance is my No. 1 trade priority, and that TAA must be renewed and expanded for the sake of America’s workers before Congress acts on further free trade pacts,” Baucus said. “I believe that the Colombia FTA should be considered, and should pass, but on its own merits and in its own time. I do not believe that the Colombia FTA can pass Congress unless our duty on TAA is done.”

Pomper said linking the Colombia deal and trade adjustment assistance essentially guarantees neither would pass. Even before the postponement of this week’s markup, Pomper was skeptical that legislation would move this year. But he said it is certain to come up for a vote next year.