Many U.S. House Democrats Want Trade Policy Revamp

(The Washington Post – Reuters)

Political pressure grew on President Barack Obama to reconsider pending trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea as over 100 lawmakers called on Wednesday for a massive revamp of U.S. trade policy.

The 106 lawmakers, most of them members of Obama’s Democratic party, introduced legislation requiring a comprehensive review of the economic impact of existing major trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, before any new ones are considered.

The legislation introduced on Wednesday, called the Trade Act, also stipulates environmental and labor standards and provisions for food and product safety and human rights protections that lawmakers say were omitted from previous trade deals and now must be included.

Obama, during his presidential campaign, said he favored changing NAFTA to include stronger labor and environmental protections that many members of his party wanted. But after he became president, his top trade official, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, said this was not necessary. Read more here.