By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Alejandra Parra/Bloomberg NewsA woman in Bogotá, Colombia, prepared roses in February for shipment to the United States for Valentine's Day. A trade agreement with Colombia would create annual demand for about $1.1 billion in American goods.
WASHINGTON — The White House struck a deal with House Republicans Tuesday to reinstate benefits for workers who lose jobs to foreign competition, addressing a major obstacle to consideration of three free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
Haggling over the modest and obscure benefits program had tied up the trade pacts for months, pitting Democrats concerned about the impact of competition on American workers against Republicans eager to increase foreign trade but loath to increase federal spending on another aid program.
But the deal does not assure that Congress will pass the pacts, which are crucial ingredients in the Obama administration’s recipe for reinvigorating economic growth. Indeed, Republicans quickly said they would continue to insist that the benefits program be considered separately from the trade agreements, a condition Democrats described as unacceptable.
The Obama administration, which had maintained for weeks that it would not submit the trade pacts to Congress until the deadlock was resolved, by Tuesday night found itself defending its new deal as an important step that might lead to a complete resolution.
“As a result of extensive negotiations, we now have an agreement on the underlying terms for a meaningful renewal of a strengthened” benefits program, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said in a statement. Other administration officials hastened to clarify that that deal did not extend to the question of how that agreement might be approved.
Senator Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman of the Finance Committee, said that he would convene a hearing Thursday morning, starting a process that could end with the bills passing into law before the end of summer.
“We think this package can get the support needed to become law,” Mr. Baucus said. “American workers and our economy can’t afford for us to wait any longer to move forward.”
Senate Republicans, however, said they would seek to strip the benefits program from the legislation by asking the Senate parliamentarian to rule that its inclusion did not comply with Senate rules, because it was not sufficiently related to the main subject of the legislation.
Senator Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, said that the White House’s strategy “risks support for this critical job-creating trade pact in the name of a welfare program of questionable benefit at a time when our nation is broke.”
John Boehner, the House speaker, said he would hold separate votes on the free trade agreements and the benefits program. That step, even if all four pieces pass, would terminate a special process that allows for the rapid approval of trade agreements, leaving the package much more vulnerable to Senate opposition.
“We have long said that T.A.A. — even this scaled-back version — should be dealt with separately from the trade agreements, and that is how we expect to proceed,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, referring to the worker benefit program, Trade Adjustment Assistance.
The trade agreements would eliminate tariffs on the flow of goods and services between the United States and the other countries. The United States has similar agreements with Mexico, Canada and 15 other countries.
The free trade agreement with South Korea could increase annual sales of American goods to that country by up to $10.9 billion, according to a 2007 estimate by a federal agency, the United States International Trade Commission. Dairy products, pork and poultry, chemicals, rubber and plastics are among the goods in greatest demand.
The agreement with Colombia, a much smaller trading partner, would create annual demand for about $1.1 billion in American goods, the agency estimated. It said the impact of the Panama agreement would be even smaller. It did not provide an estimate.
“For members of Congress who care about American jobs, this is a moment of truth,” said Thomas J. Donohue, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, which is starting a lobbying campaign in support of the deals, including the creation of a Web site that shows a detailed picture of exports from each Congressional district.
But the trade agreements also are likely to put some Americans out of work as cheaper imports from the three countries undermine existing American manufacturers. The deals have been rewritten to protect American companies and workers, in part by insisting on better workplace conditions in those countries to minimize their advantage.
“We’re ramping up our outreach to members of Congress, member of unions and members of the public to make sure we have a full and honest debate about what these trade agreements will mean,” said Thea Lee, chief international economist at the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
The South Korea deal will lead to losses of manufacturing jobs, she said. “Colombia, there is of course continuing concern about violence against union leaders and members. On Panama, there are still concerns about labor law reform and the tax haven status.”
Democratic lawmakers who share these concerns insisted on the expansion of worker benefits.
The aid program, created in the 1960s, was expanded in 2009 as part of economic stimulus legislation to offer broader benefits and to include workers in service industries as well as manufacturing. But the expansion lapsed in January.
The deal reached Tuesday would offer benefits for the current year and the next two years, at a level between the old program and the 2009 version. For example, the government historically paid 65 percent of workers’ health care premiums, which was increased to 80 percent in 2009. If the deal is approved, the government would now pay 73 percent.
And the program will once again include service workers, a goal of the White House negotiating team led by Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council.
Representative Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, won a reduction in the program’s annual budget to $575 million from $1 billion.
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