Survey: Obama's Trade Proposal a Tough Sell for Most Americans

June 9, 2015, 4:04 PM UTC / Updated June 9, 2015, 3:49 PM UTC

By Halimah Abdullah

Despite a heavy push by President Barack Obama for a sweeping multinational trade deal, a majority of Americans echo the concerns of labor unions and a number of Democratic members of Congress that the trade accord will negatively impact U.S. workers and companies.

Two-thirds of Americans say protecting American industries and jobs by limiting imports is more important than allowing free trade so they can buy products at lower prices from any country, according to the most recent NBC News online survey conducted by SurveyMonkey from June 3-5.

And that sentiment is held across party lines, with majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents agreeing that limiting imported inexpensive goods from other countries to protect jobs from other countries is more important than being able to buy cheap goods.

After a dramatic showdown in the Senate over giving the president "fast-track" aauthority to negotiate a sweeping multinational trade pact, the fight now moves to the House where the majority of Democrats oppose the legislation amid worries that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-nation trade accord, will cost American jobs and result in lowered middle class wages.

But that approval came only after the Senate initially blocked consideration of that legislation in a dramatic showdown that was seen as a stinging rebuke to the administration's efforts.

Meanwhile, Obama administration officials have been for weeks running a clear public relations strategy on trade, with the president talking the deal up in interviews last week with local news channels in states with large liberal populations and in previous interviews with David Letterman, MSNBC's Chris Matthews and recent interviews on NPR.

Strongest support for allowing free trade comes among those with college degrees, with nearly 4 in 10 college graduates saying free trade is more important than limiting imports. Just 1 in 4 of those with some college and a third of those with high school degrees or less favor free trade over protecting American industries and jobs.

The NBC News Online Survey was conducted among a national sample of 2,153 adults aged 18 and over. Respondents for this non-probability survey were selected from among those who have volunteered to participate in the SurveyMonkey Audience panel.

Results have an error estimate of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points. A full description of our methodology can be found here.

The survey was produced by the Analytics Unit of NBC News in conjunction with Penn's Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies with data collection and tabulation conducted by SurveyMonkey. Analysis by the University of Pennsylvania's Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies.

Halimah Abdullah

Halimah Abdullah is a digital editor and writer for NBC News and is responsible for reporting, writing, editing and web producing federal policy news for NBCNews.com. Prior to joining the site in April 2015, Abdullah worked at CNN.com, where she reported, edited and web produced stories on federal politics and policy. In that role, Abdullah was responsible for helping cover Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and national political races.

A veteran politics and policy reporter and editor, Abdullah has worked for Bloomberg Government, McClatchy Newspapers' Washington Bureau, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Newsday, and the Dallas Morning News. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times and TODAY.com, among other publications. Her journalism and creative writing have won awards, been published in several anthologies, and earned her invitations to attend several writing colonies. Abdullah is also a writing professor who has taught at the University of Maryland and the University of the District of Columbia and John Jay College and Brooklyn College in New York.

Abdullah lives in the Washington D.C. metro area.