Excerpt: U.S. companies should push Congress to approve free-trade accords with South Korea, Colombia and Panama next week while renewing aid to workers hurt by foreign competition, White House Chief of Staff William Daley said. Passing the free-trade agreements and the worker aid, called Trade Adjustment Assistance, is an “essential piece of the president’s jobs agenda,” Daley said last night in Washington. President Barack Obama sent Congress legislation for the trade pacts reached four years ago on Oct. 3 after House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he would consider the worker assistance in tandem with the trade deals. “It is too soon for any of us to take a victory lap,” Daley told representatives of companies including Ford Motor Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. at a fund-raising dinner for the National Foreign Trade Council’s educational foundation. “We need to get all four elements of this package — the three trade deals and TAA — across the finish line next week.”http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-05/daley-says-trade-agreements-should-clear-u-s-congress-next-week.html
