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The Tea Party is aiming to stop one of the few initiatives President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress say they both want in the coming year: more free trade.

The effort, which has drawn interest from Democratic allies in U.S. labor unions, is aimed at killing legislation that would let the president submit trade deals for an up-or-down vote, called fast-track authority.

Business lobbyists, in turn, are seeking the allegiance of freshly elected lawmakers to head off the threat to Obamas trade agenda from Republicans skeptical of his powers.

Anti-trade sentiments are more ascendant in the Republican party than they might have been 20 years ago, Obama said yesterday at a meeting with the Business Roundtable, which represents chief executive officers from U.S. companies, including Dupont Co. (DD) and Visa Inc. (V)

Tea Party-endorsed lawmakers have vexed the Republican leadership since they emerged as a faction after 2010 congressional elections. They have stopped Speaker John Boehner from making deals with Obama on deficit reduction and torpedoed chances for broad immigration legislation in 2013.

Fast-track powers would help Obama complete agreements, such as a 12-nation free-trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is the commercial element of his foreign policys pivot to Asia. Without the authority, other governments wont open their markets to agricultural products, services and other American exports for fear that Congress will change the terms of the deal.

Republican Representatives Duncan Hunter of California, David McKinley of West Virginia and David Joyce of Ohio yesterday gave Boehner a letter signed by 19 party members urging against a vote on a fast-track bill in this Congress. And they signaled they are unwilling to ever vote for it.

The American people have spoken loud and clear: they want a new direction for our country, they wrote. The habitual abuses of power by this president have eroded the faith of the American people, who no longer trust his judgment or leadership.

Obama, in his remarks, said that trade policy has split Democrats, with labor unions and environmental groups opposing new deals, and the public is uneasy with perceptions that trade deals pinch their pocketbooks.

Were not going to get anything done in this town until we can describe to the average American worker how this is improving their wages, Obama said.

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Tea Party Takes Aim at Republican-Obama Accord on Trade Agenda