Now that Congress has authorized President Obama to negotiate trade agreements on its behalf, both the White House and lawmakers must ensure that the deals he sends them will benefit American workers, protect the environment and enhance the domestic economy.

The Senate last week approved a measure that gives the president “fast track” authority to reach trade agreements with other countries; Congress can approve or reject those deals, but not amend or filibuster. The first accord to which this authority will apply is the Trans-Pacific Partnership among 12 Pacific Rim nations.

The argument for fast-track is that trade partners are unlikely to approve agreements that could prove politically unpopular in their countries if they know that Congress then could rewrite the deals. Initially, some House and Senate members balked at passing fast-track. Democrats warned that some eventual trade deals could confer economic advantages on corporations without helping workers and consumers. They called for steps to prevent trade partners from manipulating their currencies to promote exports and demanded that the administration ensure that future trade deals do not supersede U.S. laws on such things as tobacco control, child labor and banking regulation. Obama must address such concerns.

Reducing tariffs and removing other obstacles to fair global competition in goods and services can allow each country to do what it does best. But that can happen only if workers, in the United States and abroad, benefit broadly from the higher wages, expanded job opportunities and better working conditions that liberalized trade is supposed to generate.


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