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(Bloomberg) — The White House is reaching the endgame in negotiating a trade accord with other Pacific Rim countries, though President Barack Obama hasn’t closed the deal with fellow Democrats. The administration has conducted more than 1,700 briefings with members of Congress since it began pushing for a deal, according to Michael Froman, Obama’s top trade negotiator. That so far hasn’t swayed many Democrats and their backers in labor unions to support the president on a central element of his economic and foreign policy strategy. The president made a direct pitch to party activists in Washington Thursday, telling them trade is good for the country and asking them to trust him. “We’ve got to recognize the realities of the new economy,” Obama told a gathering of Organizing for Action, a group born from his campaign organization. “I believe in what I’m doing here.” Obama is seeking a pair of major trade deals with Asia and Europe that serve as significant legacy markers for his second term. The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is closer to completion, will be one of the main topics of conversation when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe comes to the White House next Tuesday for talks and a state dinner.

Still Differences

Froman, the U.S. trade representative, was in Tokyo this week to work on differences between the U.S. and Japan, by far the two biggest economies in the negotiations, over dealing with autos and agricultural products. “We’re definitely in the endgame,” Froman said Thursday at an economic forum in Washington sponsored by the Atlantic magazine. Even so, he said there was no expectation that a final deal will be announced when Abe meets with Obama. One critical step in the process is trade promotion authority legislation, approved in the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday night, a process known as fast-track that would enable the White House to assure its negotiating partners that any deal wouldn’t be subject to amendments from lawmakers.
The bill, introduced last week by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the panel, has drawn some bipartisan support.

Democratic Resistance

Still, many prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and his designated successor, New York’s Charles Schumer, have said they are concerned that freer trade could result in the loss of American jobs to overseas competitors. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., backed alternative legislation offered by Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan that would give Obama specific direction on outstanding issues in the Pacific deal and slow approval of a final agreement. The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved, 25-13, a trade promotion authority measure, which is co- sponsored by panel chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican. Representatives Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon were the only Demorats voting for the measure. Ryan ruled Levin’s bill was out of order, citing committee jurisdiction issues. Labor unions have committed to spending aggressively against the legislation, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has looked to rally opposition among traditional Democratic groups.
“If most of the trade deal is good for the American economy, but there’s a provision hidden in the fine print that could help multinational corporations ship American jobs overseas or allow for watering down of environmental or labor rules, fast track would mean that Congress couldn’t write an amendment to fix it,” Warren wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “It’s all or nothing.”

‘What’s Wrong’

Obama, speaking at Organizing for Action on Thursday, said opponents of trade cite fallout from the North American Free Trade Agreement, in effect for a quarter century. “You need to tell me what’s wrong with this trade agreement, not one that was passed 25 years ago,” Obama said. Obama told the activists that much of what they’ve been hearing about the trade pact is misinformation and that he isn’t abandoning core Democratic stands. “It’s not a left or right issue,” he said. “It’s a question of the past and future.” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the appearance was an opportunity for Obama to make that case to the “next generation of progressive organizers.” “This has been a difficult political issue for Democrats and sort of traditional allies in the past, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to shy away from this conversation,” Schultz said.
The primary challenge for the administration, however, will be winning over the current generation of Democrats serving in Congress.

Drawing Support

Obama needs 217 “yes” votes in the House to pass the trade promotion authority measure, assuming all current members cast a vote. Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said Wednesday his count showed 180 to 200 Republicans ready to back the legislation, with as many as 30 Democrats in support. Cole, the deputy majority whip in the House, said that left supporters with “not much to spare.” The vote also is close in the Senate, where Republicans have 54 of 100 seats. Republican Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota said “the votes are going to be there to pass it.”

–With assistance from Carter Dougherty in Washington.

To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net; Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net Justin Blum, Don Frederick