WASHINGTON, Jan 5: US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle promised on Friday a vote early this year on a bill that would give President George W. Bush expanded trade negotiating power.

In a major speech outlining his ideas for boosting the economy, the South Dakota Democrat stressed that opening new markets around the world to US goods must be part of long-term efforts to accomplish that goal.

No country is better situated to thrive in this global information economy than the United States of America. That is why I support fast track and intend to bring it up for a vote in the full Senate early this year, Daschle said.

But Daschle stressed that so-called fast track legislation, also known as trade promotion authority, must be accompanied by a major expansion of US assistance for domestic workers who lose their jobs as a result of increased imports.

Our society as a whole benefits from greater trade and globalization, but we need to recognize that not everyone benefits. We can’t afford to leave those workers behind, for our sake or for theirs, he said.

But linking trade adjustment assistance (TAA) to trade promotion authority could trigger a fight with Republicans, who have blasted the Democratic approach to expanding the displaced worker programs as too expensive.

We need to improve the current TAA program, but we need to do it in a bipartisan way that doesn’t bust the federal budget, said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican. Trade promotion authority is too important to our economy to be held hostage to TAA or any other issue.

The fast track bill would give Bush the authority to negotiate trade agreements that Congress could approve or reject, but not amend. Supporters say without the legislation other countries would refuse to negotiate seriously with the United States because of the possibility that Congress could change any agreement that is reached.

The White House has not had the authority since 1994 because of an impasse in Congress over how to handle labour and environmental issues associated with trade.

A fast track bill that would raise the profile of those issues in future trade talks was barely approved by the House of Representatives last month on a 215-214 vote.

That vote broke down mostly along party lines, with only 21 Democrats joining 194 Republicans in supporting the measure.

A week after the House vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved a slightly modified version of the House bill by 18-3.

Although Daschle supported the trade bill in the Finance Committee, there have been questions about how quickly he would bring the legislation to the Senate floor.

There’s been a great deal of Daschle obstructionism on a lot of the president’s agenda, Grassley said earlier this week, referring to Daschle’s refusal last month to bring a Republican economic stimulus bill to the Senate floor for a vote.

Support for trade legislation has traditionally been stronger in the Senate than in the House, where members face more intense pressure from constituents.

In 1997, the Senate voted 68-31 in favor of fast track trade legislation only to see the measure die in the House.

Fifty-five of the senators who supported the bill in 1997 remain in the Senate.—Reuters