There is wariness about President Barack Obama’s push for new trade agreements that’s likely to grow with the Senate’s final approval Wednesday, by a 60-38 vote, of fast-track negotiating authority.

With that authority, the president can deliver trade agreements, developed in secret, to Congress to be approved or rejected, but not amended. This increases the administration’s negotiating power with other nations because Congress won’t be able to change the agreement.

The H-1B visa has a major role in services trade. U.S. IT workers can find themselves training temporary visa-holding workers as a condition of severance as their duties are moved overseas. There’s a lot of anger about the practice, but from a global perspective — especially in India — the H-1B visa is seen as an instrument of free trade and restricting it is called protectionist.

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