Obama to Double Down on Fast Track Push Following SOTU

Following Tuesday’s State of the Union address, in which he is expected to call on Congress to grant him greater leeway to negotiate a pair of corporate-friendly trade deals with Europe and Asia, President Barack Obama will enlist his Cabinet members to push for Fast Track trade authority on Capitol Hill.

Fast Track would speed along passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact involving the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim countries, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a proposed deal between the European Union and the U.S. Both agreements have been criticized for the secrecy in which they are being developed, as well as their potentially negative impacts on jobs, wages, food safety, workers’ rights, and public health.

According to The Hill:

Opposition also exists on the opposite end of the political spectrum. “Unabashed liberals Rosa DeLauro and Keith Ellison are finding themselves taking sides with tea party-backed Republicans Walter Jones and Duncan Hunter in the fight against a common enemy—the White House’s GOP-backed trade agenda,” Adam Behsudi writes Tuesday for Politico.

Behsudi explains: “Tea party and other conservatives oppose the legislation because they say it would cede Congress’ constitutional authority over trade to a White House they don’t trust. Progressives, backed by labor and environmental groups, say the bill will only make it easier to strike new trade deals that would send U.S. jobs to countries with deficient labor and environment standards.”