House committee set to review bill on FTA with S. Korea

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Yonhap) -- A congressional committee said Tuesday that it will begin a review of bills on trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama later this week but political strife is expected over how to support American workers affected by trade.
The House Ways and Means Committee plans to open a session to consider the draft implementing bills for the free trade agreements (FTAs) on Thursday, with a month to go before Congress goes into recess.
But the committee's chairman, Dave Camp (R-MI), is pushing to exclude a renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program from the FTA with South Korea, called KORUS FTA.
The TAA, designed to provide job-training programs and health-care benefits for displaced workers, is a potential deal-breaker as President Barack Obama seeks to extend the program, while the Republicans dismiss it as a waste of money. Obama said he would not send the bills to Congress for ratification unless the TAA issue is resolved.
Obama has attempted to tie the TAA with the KORUS FTA.
Last week, the Senate Finance Committee convened a mock markup to discuss the FTA bills, with the TAA included in the KORUS pact, but Republican members boycotted it.