Obama’s Trade Deal With Asia: Not So Fast

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The free-trade agreement beingnegotiated by the U.S. and 11 other nations is considered theeconomic keystone of the Barack Obama administration’s much-vaunted “pivot” to Asia. If successful, the Trans-PacificPartnership will liberalize a $2 trillion market, reinforce U.S.standing as the lead promoter of “21st century” tradepractices, and revolutionize economic relations between the U.S.and its most important ally in the region, Japan.

Given the complexities of negotiations involving economiesranging from Vietnam to Japan, the failure of recent meetings inSingapore to produce the promised year-end agreement isn’t asurprise. Yet the real question surrounding the TPP isn’t whatwill happen during the next talks in January. It is what willtake place in the U.S. Congress, where the agreement threatensto get snarled in a partisan battle that taps foundationaldifferences between Democrats and Republicans on therelationship between government and labor.