Trading down

International | As a deal with Korea faces an uphill battle, Bush loses a key trade tool | Priya Abraham

This month George W. Bush became only the second U.S. president to lose "fast-track" trade promotion authority, which allows a president to negotiate free-trade deals that lawmakers can only reject or accept, but not amend.

Congress took it away from Bill Clinton in 1994 and Bush got it back in 2002; now, without fast-track, negotiated trade deals are unlikely to stick, since lawmakers can unstitch details they dislike and demand new negotiations, which discourages countries from working with the United States at all.

One immediate loss may be the trade deal signed with Korea last month: It would add an estimated $20 billion a year in trade with Korea, give Americans new business opportunities, and make Kias and Hyundais cheaper to buy in the United States, but a trade-leery Democratic Congress is unlikely to pass the pact or three others just signed with Colombia, Peru, and Panama. "The Democrats who are somewhat ambivalent about trade don't trust this president," said Kimberly Elliott, a senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics.