US Senate passes broad trade measure

WASHINGTON: The US Senate voted Thursday for a broad trade measure coupled to aid for displaced US workers under a plan to move forward on stalled trade pacts with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.

Lawmakers voted 70-27 to approve the Generalized System of Preferences that gives goods from developing countries duty-free access to US markets after attaching Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for US workers to the bill.

The Democratic-held Senate's move sent the legislation to the Republican-led House of Representatives, which was expected to pass the legislation and send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Obama had refused to submit the stalled agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea until TAA cleared the US Congress, and it was unclear when he would send the accords up for lawmakers' approval.

The embattled US president, whose reelection fight in November 2012 will turn on his handling of the sour economy, has said the agreements will help battle stubbornly high US unemployment of more than nine percent.

"Now, it's the president's turn. No more moving the goal posts. No more excuses," said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. "The time has come to send the three pending free trade agreements to Congress."

The accords, negotiated and signed by Obama's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, had run into Democratic opposition early on.

The Colombia accord stalled on US concerns over deadly violence against labor activists, the Panama agreement faced hurdles tied to alleged money laundering and worries about opening South Korea's automobile market held up that pact.

Trade officials say those issues are mostly resolved.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011