The long delayed trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation finally reached the floor of the House of Representatives on June 12 and immediately hit a snag. With a majority of House Democrats in open revolt against President Obama’s trade agenda, the House defeated a section of the bill providing for trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which would provide transitional assistance to U.S. workers displaced by foreign competition and is considered essential to final passage of TPA.

The defeat of TAA forced a quick revision of strategy, as the House had passed the TPA section of the bill by a narrow 219-211 vote. The defeat of the linked TAA provisions was seen by opponents as a tactical move to obstruct final passage of the consolidated legislation. Their ultimate target is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an ambitious trade pact under negotiation among 12 Pacific-Rim countries. TPA is considered essential for completing the negotiations.

Today, the House repassed the TPA reauthorization as a free standing bill, this time by a vote of 218-208. That bill will be sent to the Senate for approval, even though the Senate last month had approved a combined TPA-TAA bill. Separately, the Senate is expected to package TAA with a trade preferences bill which, if passed, would be sent back to the House for final approval.

“It is crucial to find a way forward because TPA is essential to the negotiators trying to finalize TPP negotiations. A little further downstream it is also important to making meaningful progress on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations with the European Union,â€� said Floyd Gaibler, U.S. Grains Council’s director of trade policy and biotechnology. “The politics surrounding TPP are already intense, and the closer we get to the election season, the more difficult passage will become. Meanwhile, people risk losing sight of what is at stake.â€�

The TPP would be the largest trade deal in recent history, and the most important to future growth of the U.S. economy, exports and jobs. There are now more than 500 million middle class consumers in Asia, and by 2030, there will be more than three billion. That is nearly ten times the size of the U.S. population today, and more than eight times the projected size of the United States in 2030.

This agreement is anticipated to reduce trade barriers that handicap U.S. farmers, manufacturers and other businesses in competing for a share of the world’s fastest growing markets. It is an ambitious negotiation, aiming for a comprehensive agreement that will set the standard for other negotiations in other parts of the world.

“The rest of the world is moving ahead on bilateral and regional agreements that cut out the United States,� Gaibler said. “The bottom line is that the U.S. market is much more open than many of our competitor countries, and we need agreements like TPP and T-TIP to level the playing field.

“The United States is the world’s largest agricultural exporter. With domestic food markets saturated and slow growing, U.S. farmers need exports for continued profitability and growth.�

Failure to pass a strong, comprehensive TPP agreement would mean continuation of an unsatisfactory status quo, with rising foreign competition and unfair barriers to U.S. exports abroad. In the long run, since the rest of the world is racing ahead with trade deals, it also means steadily increasing pressure on U.S. market share in ever bigger, ever more prosperous and ever more competitive global markets.