US President Barack Obama. (Source: AFP/VNA)

The US Congress said the TPA bill was passed with a narrow margin of 218 votes in favor and 208 votes against. This move shows that the Obama Administration's lobbying efforts in recent days have paid off because TPA was passed independently, not attached to a package of bills including the TAA bill, which was vetoed by Democratic lawmakers last weekend because they believed the bill was not strong enough to support American workers who lost their jobs because of the TPP. The leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in the House of Representatives made concessions when they agreed to separate TPA and TAA into two separate bills for voting.

In this vote, only 28 House Democrats voted in favor of TPA, while 158 Democrats and 50 Republicans voted against. Republicans expressed confidence that the House's move to vote on TPA before the July 30 deadline showed that supporters of the bill were likely to gain enough votes to pass both TPA and TAA.

“We are committed to passing both the trade promotion authority and trade adjustment assistance bills for the president’s signature,” House Speaker John Boehner said. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that although the two bills would be split into two separate bills, with TPA voted on first and TAA second, President Obama would not sign TPA without TAA.

However, although the House of Representatives has passed TPA separately, President Obama has not been able to sign it into law again because the version of the bill that just passed the House of Representatives is not the same as the version of the bill package that the US Senate passed late last month, which includes both TPA and TAA. Therefore, this version of the TPA bill will have to be sent back to the Senate for a vote, expected next week. Speaking to the press, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned that she does not believe that both houses of the US Congress will pass both bills and that the path forward for the TAA bill is very unclear. So far, the majority of Democratic senators in the Senate still oppose the option of separating TPA and TAA into two separate bills.

President Obama is making every effort to convince Democratic lawmakers to support granting him TPA. The TPA’s passage will pave the way for President Obama to have full authority to move forward with TPP negotiations with the 11 partner countries. Once the negotiations are completed, the US Congress will only have the right to ratify or veto the agreement, but not to amend or supplement the terms of the agreement. Without TPA, the TPP negotiations will be prolonged because the 11 partners in the TPP, especially Japan and Canada, are concerned that after signing, the TPP may be adjusted or amended by the US Congress./.

(According to VNA/VN+)