Trade bill is lacking senators' support

WASHINGTON — A push to revisit U.S. trade agreements — a major priority of labor unions and some farm groups —is not gaining much traction with New York's Democratic U.S. senators.

Neither Sen. Charles E. Schumer nor Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand has signed on to the latest legislation to review existing and proposed trade agreements and lay out requirements for labor practices, food safety regulations and other conditions to future deals.

It also would open the way to renegotiate deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement if a federal review indicates the agreements lack those elements.

Advocates for the Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have reached out to Mr. Schumer's and Mrs. Gillibrand's offices without securing their support. A spokesman for Mr. Schumer said the senator's office is reviewing the legislation; a spokeswoman for Mrs. Gillibrand said only that she "supports efforts to ensure fair and enforceable labor and environmental standards for trade agreements."

Supporters of the bill include the New York Fair Trade Campaign, the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the National Farmers Union and the National Family Farm Coalition, as well as the advocacy group Public Citizen.

All have been critical of free trade agreements, which they say encourage the movement of jobs overseas and sometimes lead to more imports of farm products, competing with U.S. farmers.

Supporters say the legislation reflects President Obama's campaign promise to approach trade agreements differently from his predecessors. But the administration has shown a more traditional side, recently calling for a trans-Pacific trade deal that alarms some farm groups, particularly those with ties to the dairy industry.

"If passed, it will move us past the repeated defensive fights against bad agreements," Public Citizen said in a press release. "It also helps realize the campaign promises made by President Obama and the 72 fair-trade congress members newly elected in 2006 and 2008 that replaced advocates of the failed status-quo policies."

While the NFU and the National Family Farm Coalition support the bill, other farm groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Milk Producers Federation have taken a more nuanced view of trade deals, supporting them if certain U.S. farm interests appear protected.

The supporters specifically list the North America Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization as targets of review. And they call upon Congress to reassert its own role in spelling out the details of trade deals, rejecting the "fast track" authority that has let previous presidents negotiate deals, then present them to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without changes.