U.S. trade officials will delay seeking congressional approval for a pending free-trade deal with Panama until President Barack Obama offers a new “framework” for future trade deals.
The administration wants to outline how trade fits with other priorities such as assistance for unemployed workers and health care, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Everett Eissenstat said today.
“It’s clear that trade agreements in the last few years have been much too divisive,” Eissenstat told the Senate Finance Committee.
“We want to make sure that Panama doesn’t contribute to that divisiveness.”
The American labor movement opposes a rush to ratify the deal. The Panama accord was signed in 2007 and was viewed as the least controversial of three trade agreements reached by President George W.
Bush and pending congressional approval.