Obama makes fresh push for 'fast track' authority

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday stepped up his efforts to win the "fast track" authority he needs from Congress to conclude a major Pacific trade deal, dismissing critics within his own party as wrong.

Mr Obama has made securing the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan and 10 other economies one of the pillars of his second-term economic policy. The deal would cover some 40 per cent of the global economy and be the biggest regional agreement ever negotiated by the US.

But the president needs what is formally known as Trade Promotion Authority from Congress to close the deal with negotiating partners and faces a tough fight with members of his own party to get it.

In an interview with MSNBC due to be broadcast Tuesday night, Mr Obama in particular took on criticisms levelled by Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator leading the opposition against the trade push. She has argued that the TPP would contribute to what has been an erosion of the American middle class and give undue rights to multinational corporations to challenge the US and other governments before extrajudicial panels.

"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues. But she's wrong on this," the president said, according to a partial transcript released by MSNBC.

The president said securing the TPP was crucial to helping boost the American economy and the politically-important middle class.

"I've spent the last six and half years yanking this economy out of the worst recession since the great depression," he said. "Every single thing I've done from the Affordable Care Act to pushing to raise the minimum wage to making sure that young people are able to go to college and get good job training to what we're pushing now in terms of sick pay leave. Everything I do has been focused on 'how do we make sure the middle class is getting a fair deal'."

"I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class," he said. "And when you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts they are wrong."

The comments came as committees in Congress began considering a bipartisan bill introduced last week that would grant the president fast-track authority, or TPA.

Tom Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, told a Senate finance committee hearing on Tuesday that it was vital for Congress to pass TPA. "Without TPA, the United States will be relegated to the sidelines as other nations negotiate trade agreements without us - putting American workers, farmers, and companies at a competitive disadvantage," he said.

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The consequences of getting it wrong were substantial, he argued, with the TPP and a separate negotiation with the EU potentially covering some 60 per cent of the global economy.

"If [delivering those deals is] not done right you will see the continuation of wage stagnation, you will see inequality continuing to grow . . . You will see the middle class in this country continue to be decimated," Mr Trumka told the hearing.

Committees in both the Senate and lower House of Representatives are due to consider the fast-track bill further on Wednesday and Thursday setting up votes in both houses of Congress by early May.

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