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Relying on Republicans and going against the grain of his own party for his legislative successes has not been much of a go-to play in President Barack Obama's game plan.

Then there's international trade.

On Thursday, Obama stepped up his campaign for expanding exports and negotiating new trade deals in Asia and Europe, a rare spot of common ground with Republicans and a raw point of friction with Democrats. Obama pushed his trade themes in interviews with television stations from states represented by some of the handful of Democratic senators who may be willing to side with the president on his plans for new commerce agreements.

"There have been times in the past where some of the trade deals didn't work out for particular sectors in particular communities," Obama told KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri. "Which is why we're organizing trade in the Asia Pacific region, the fastest growing region in the world, to make sure you have strong enforceable labor provisions, make sure you have strong enforceable environmental provisions, make sure you have a level playing field."

Before cutting those deals, however, Obama wants authority to negotiate trade agreements that Congress can only approve or reject, but not amend. Presidents have had an increasingly tough time getting that authority from Congress; Bill Clinton had to buck his party to win it and George W. Bush got it by a single vote.

But Obama's task may be even tougher.

"He has a harder challenge because the last Democratic president (Clinton) who did this did it in the context of a historic economic boom, a period in which globalization still looked like it had enormous upsides with relatively little downside," said Rob Shapiro, a former senior Commerce Department official and economic adviser to President Clinton.

"The upsides are still there, but the downsides have become more apparent."

Critics, including labor unions, complain past trade deals have sent U.S. manufacturing jobs to countries with lower wages, have flooded the U.S. with cheaper imports and not helped U.S. exporters.

The Obama administration on Thursday released data promoting the role of exports in the economic recovery. According to the White House, exports supported about 11.3 million jobs in 2013, an increase of 1.6 million over 2009. While the U.S. posted a record $2.35 trillion in exports in 2014, it also posted a $500 billion trade deficit, higher than 2013 but lower than the $760 billion high recorded in 2006.

Read more from the original source:
Obama Steps up Pitch for Trade, Exports, Targets Democrats