Some real progress emerged yesterday on an unexpected front: an agreement between House Democratic leaders, led by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY), and the Bush administration on a template for future trade agreements. For the first time, the administration has agreed to the inclusion of core labor and environmental standards in trade agreements, along with a comprehensive effort to update and expand domestic programs that help U.S. workers deal with dislocations caused by globalization and other factors. This accord paves the way for congressional approval of at least two pending Free Trade Agreements, with Peru and Panama, while establishing a framework for future deals. It is a triumph for Chairman Rangel, and a very good sign for Democratic leadership on policy in the years ahead.

The agreement establishes as U.S. policy that future bilateral Free Trade Agreements -- that is, agreements which create special relationships offering partners greater access to the U.S. market than WTO rules require -- include enforcement of the fundamental workers' rights provisions set out by the International Labor Organization's 1998 Declaration on Core Labor Standards (including the right to organize unions, and bans on child labor and discriminatory practices), and of seven specific international environmental pacts.

And it commits the administration and House leaders to a "Strategic Worker Assistance and Training Initiative " to "promote education, training and portable health and pension benefits, design and implement concrete and comprehensive programs, including public-private partnerships to educate youth, update and upgrade workers' skills on the job, stimulate science education and research, provide meaningful health and pension benefits and income support, go beyond the current TAA [Trade Adjustment Assistance] system to provide meaningful support, training and revitalization programs for entire communities hurt by the effects of trade and technology."

The latter provision has been a long-standing goal of all pro-trade progressives. And the labor and environmental standards usefully focus on widely acknowledged international norms that will be binding on the United States and its FTA partners equally, avoiding arbitrary and unilateral efforts to impose wage rates on poorer countries that would simply make trade agreements impossible.

It's clear this deal was led by Reps. Rangel and Sander Levin (D-MI), with strong support from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who appeared side-by-side with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab at the press conference announcing it, and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), the chief trade strategist for Senate Democrats. It has won enthusiastic support from internationalist Democrats in Congress. Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), who chairs the DLC's newly launched Global Economy Project, called the accord "a monumental accomplishment," and said that "Chairman Rangel's leadership paves the way for bipartisan cooperation on trade and greater access to new markets for American goods and services." New Democrat Coalition leaders agreed, with Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) calling it "a major breakthrough that reflects our commitment to the American worker, environmental concerns, and our economic ability to compete globally," and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) terming it "exactly the kind of forward-thinking trade policy we need."

The deal is just, of course, a starting point for a revival of bipartisan trade policy -- and trade policy in turn is only one element of the larger set of financial, competitiveness and adjustment policies we need to remain the world's leading economy in the decades ahead. The DLC will be active in this debate, through the Global Economy Project, which over this year will be reviewing the broad spectrum of policies the United States will need for the 2010s.

That said, as Baucus observed, its conclusion means "greater cooperation, greater consensus on trade, whether it's trade adjustment assistance coming down the road, potentially at Trade Promotion Authority." That is very good news, and we applaud the negotiators -- above all Mr. Rangel -- for their work.