Trade deals good for Florida

Pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that would boost the economy in Florida and the nation remain stuck in Congress. They are still being held hostage by recalcitrant Republicans who are threatening not to ratify the pacts unless the Obama administration removes retraining services under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program for American workers who might lose their jobs to oversees investment. President Barack Obama is right in standing up to protect workers potentially most harmed by the treaties by holding firm in his support for the retraining program, and a deal he reached last week with a top Republican to extend the program through 2013 should not be blocked by other Senate Republicans.

Taken together, the trio of free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama are worth nearly $13 billion in enhanced commerce to U.S. industry and agricultural interests as well as potentially 250,000 jobs. According to U.S. Labor Department figures, the Trade Adjustment Assistance effort has provided retraining support to some 234,949 workers displaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement and other foreign trade arrangements since 2009. At an annual cost of slightly more than $1 billion to administer, it is a relatively modest investment to help Americans who have found themselves out of work through no fault of their own.

Critics cast the renewal of the retraining program, which expired earlier this year, as a waste of money and a bid by the Obama administration to cater to labor unions in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election. But there should be an effort to modernize the work force and better train workers to compete in a global economy.

According to U.S. Labor Department figures, most of these workers who could lose their jobs with the free trade agreements are older and less educated and work in the fields or on an assembly line. Nobody was getting rich from the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. But the TAA has been effective. According to the Labor Department, 59 percent, or about 140,000 people who have accessed TAA services, found work within six months of their retraining.

For too long the free trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama have been delayed by political gamesmanship by both Democrats and Republicans. The free trade agreements have broad support, and the White House's deal last week with Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus should be embraced by other Republicans. The fate of multibillion-dollar economic agreements that will benefit American business should not hinge on dropping modest help for workers who would be most affected.