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Obama scores a major trade win

WASHINGTON - President Obama won new powers from Congress on Wednesday to bring home an expansive Pacific Rim free-trade deal that analysts said could boost U.S. economic standing in Asia and ultimately burnish his foreign-policy legacy.

WASHINGTON - President Obama won new powers from Congress on Wednesday to bring home an expansive Pacific Rim free-trade deal that analysts said could boost U.S. economic standing in Asia and ultimately burnish his foreign-policy legacy.

Obama's victory on Capitol Hill, 12 days after House Democrats nearly scuttled his bid for fast-track authority, sets the stage for his administration to complete the multination Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, by year's end.

It represents a hard-won payoff for a president who was willing to partner with his Republican rivals and defy a majority of his party in pursuit of an accord that aides have said will ensure that the United States maintains an economic edge over a rising China.

The intensive legislative fight - waged for months by a White House eager to score a rare, bipartisan legislative victory late in Obama's tenure - appeared to be coming to a close after the Senate voted 60-38 to grant final approval to the fast-track bill. Also Wednesday, key House Democrats signaled they would concede defeat and support related legislation - which they had blocked two weeks ago to stall the trade agenda - that provides retraining aid for displaced workers.

"Within reach is an opportunity to shape tomorrow's global economy so that it reflects both our values and our interests," U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said.

Among area senators, Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), Tom Carper (D., Del.), and Chris Coons (D., Del.) voted yes. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Cory Booker (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) voted no.

Among presidential candidates, Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) voted yes; Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Ted Cruz (R., Texas), and Rand Paul (R., Ky.) voted no; and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) did not vote, though a day earlier he voted to move the legislation forward.

The trade promotion bill now heads to Obama's desk for his signature. It gives the executive branch additional powers for six years and authorizes the president, and his successor, to present trade deals to Congress for a vote on a specified timeline without lawmakers being able to amend the terms.

Although the outcome is a full-fledged victory for Obama, the acrimony along the way has raised questions about the Democratic Party's cohesion heading into the 2016 election cycle. Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, who supported the TPP as Obama's secretary of state, sought to distance herself from the pact more recently.

Most Democrats have dismissed the strategic foreign-policy benefits of the trade deal, warning instead that the TPP will cost U.S. workers jobs in traditional manufacturing industries and exacerbate the nation's widening income gap.

"The foreign-policy establishment of the executive branch has divorced itself from the domestic policy," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Ohio), who opposed the legislation.

The 12 participating TPP nations - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam - account for 40 percent of the world's economy.

U.S. officials expect the new authority to jump-start the final rounds of talks. Negotiators still must work out deals on a number of thorny issues, including new rules on access to Japanese auto and agriculture markets. In addition to lowering tariffs, the trade pact also aims to expand copyright and intellectual-property protections and regulate the flow of information on the Internet.

Once negotiations are complete, the administration will have to get a final deal through another vote in Congress, where labor unions are certain to renew their opposition efforts. The whole process could take six months or more and plunge the Democratic Party into further political turmoil in the middle of a presidential campaign.

China, which is challenging the U.S. economy as the world's largest in some measures, is not involved in the TPP negotiations. Obama administration officials have said the trade deal is being structured to allow additional countries to join after the initial deal is ratified. However, the officials said, China has a long way to go before it can meet the labor and environmental standards that will be included in the accord.

Beijing has viewed the TPP skeptically and pursued its own efforts to expand its trade and financial ties in the region, including the new China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has won support from U.S. allies including Britain and Germany.

That's why Obama's push on trade is so vital, foreign-policy analysts said. A failure on TPP would lend weight to Chinese claims that the United States does not have staying power in Asia.