Obama says he expects progress on Asia, Europe trade deals

Bloomberg

President Barack Obama said he expects the U.S. Congress to vote on a trade deal with Asia-Pacific nations after the primary season over, and that his administration will complete negotiations on a similar pact with the European Union by the end of his presidency.
“When we’re in the heat of campaigns people are naturally going to worry more about what’s lost than what’s gained, with respect to trade agreements,” Obama said on Sunday at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hanover, where the leaders were headlining the Hanover Messe, which calls itself the world’s leading trade show for industrial technology. ‘I’m confident we are going to be able to get this done.”
White House officials say the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would reduce tariffs on scores of products traded between the U.S. and European Union, remains a top priority for the president. Still, negotiators in both the U.S. and Europe acknowledge the prospects for significant movement on the trade deal are essentially non-existent until the next administration.
“I don’t anticipate that we will be able to have completed ratification of a deal by the end of the year, but I do anticipate we can have completed the agreement,” Obama said of the European pact.

Democrats Wary
Congress has yet to vote on a trade deal Obama negotiated last year with 11 Asia-Pacific nations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Many lawmakers in Obama’s own party oppose the accord.
“After the primary season is over the politics settle down a little bit in Congress, and we’ll be in a position to start moving forward,” Obama said.
The president dismissed criticism of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions in trade deals, which let companies challenge domestic laws in front of international arbitration panels. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who at one point worked in the Obama administration, has said such provisions are a dangerous challenge to sovereignty and could allow the erosion of public health and environmental protections.
But Obama said “the terrible scenarios that are painted” haven’t materialized under current trade agreements that include such provisions. “None of these things have happened with the many trade agreements that currently exist,” Obama said.

Table-Setting
Corporate leaders say they’re thankful Obama is trying to set the table on trade for the next president. The Hanover Messe trade show, with 300 U.S. companies and 70 U.S. economic development organizations expected to participate, provides Obama and Merkel an opportunity to highlight the benefits of cross-Atlantic trade.
Obama’s attendance at the show sends a message to the business community that “the president of the United States believes industrial production is important,” Siegfried Russwurm, chief technology officer of Munich-based Siemens AG, said in a phone interview.
“Hanover is a great opportunity to show how networked our world is, and sometimes politicians appreciate that
reminder.”
At a town hall with British youth on Saturday, Obama said the trade deal could create “millions of jobs and billions of dollars of benefits on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“The main thing between the United States and Europe is trying to just break down some of the regulatory differences that make it difficult to do business back and forth,” he said.
The president’s visit may exacerbate concerns about the trade deal among some factions in Germany that are nervous it could open public services to foreign investments, endanger family farms and tacitly allow the monitoring of online
activities.