A bill designed to help workers who lost their jobs due to international trade deals was sent to the president's desk last week after clearing the House of Representatives.
Passage of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bill was one of the final hurdles President Barack Obama faced in getting his trade agenda through Congress, along with the recent clearance of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which will help move along Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal negotiations. Often, opponents of huge free trade deals such as TPP or the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) cite jobs moving offshore to more affordable alternative locations as reason for their resistance. The $450 million worker-assistance measure is designed to offset that damage somewhat by providing help, such as training, to people whose jobs are moved elsewhere by trade agreements.
President notes importance of TAA
The president has noted that he will sign the bill as soon as it hits his desk.
"This week's votes represent a much-needed win for hardworking American families," he said in an e-mail statement, according to Bloomberg.
House Democrats had previously shut down TAA when it was attached to the TPA bill. However, TPA and TAA were then pushed through the House by Obama, pro-trade Democrats and Republican supporters separately, a plan that ultimately worked. The federal program was first implemented by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 following a trade deal, and has since been expanded several times, according to The Wall Street Journal.
How TAA has helped workers
Since the outset of the federal assistance program, close to 4.8 million workers have been identified by the Department of Labor as having been hurt by international trade deals, according to CNBC. About 2.2 million of the individuals deemed eligible to receive benefits or training under the program took advantage of it. In fiscal year 2013, the most recent year information is available on the program, the federal government distributed $756 million to TAA beneficiaries. That money went to apprenticeships, on-the-job training, secondary schools and other similar programs.
Attached to the works assistance bill was legislation extended trade preferences for some African nations. With TAA and TPA now passed, all eyes will focus on whether Obama can successfully negotiate a Pacific trade deal that will prove beneficial for the U.S. Canada is also one of the 12 nations involved in TPP discussions, and will also benefit from the passage of TPA and TAA, which frees up the U.S., – and subsequently the other countries involved – to continue negotiations.