Allies Line Up Against Obama's State of the Union Plea on Trade
His request for trade promotion authority, also known as fast track, presages a bitter battle in Congress that divides him from most members of his own party.
A protester holds an American flag and a Cuban one as she joins with others opposed to U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement earlier in the week of a change to the United States Cuba policy stand together at Jose Marti park on December 20, 2014 in Miami, Florida.
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Even as President Barack Obama was calling on Congress to grant him expanded powers to negotiate trade agreements, some of his staunchest allies were raising objections.
“I’m the first one to admit that past trade deals haven’t always lived up to the hype,” Obama said on Tuesday in his State of the Union speech in Washington. “But 95 percent of the world’s customers live outside our borders, and we can’t close ourselves off from those opportunities.”