President Obama and an intransigent Congress made welcome and long overdue progress on three trade agreements. Job-producing opportunities loom on the horizon.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved agreements Wednesday with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, after the White House sent the trade pacts to Capitol Hill years after they had been negotiated in the Bush administration.

Obama had held onto to the deals until language ensuring access to South Korean markets for U.S. automakers had been reworked and Colombia tightened protections for labor organizing. Obama also waited until the Senate agreed to renew aid for American workers who lost their jobs to outsourcing.

Legislative scheduling is still in play. The full House is set to vote the three trade agreements next week, as well as the worker-aid bill, which is not popular among Republicans. A vote on the trade pacts is not yet on the Senate calendar.

South Korea President Lee Myung-bak will attend a White House state dinner next Thursday. May we suggest Washington sweet cherries, pears and wine for the menu? All will benefit from dramatic drops in agricultural tariffs. Remind Obama's guest what he has been missing.

Negotiations stalled, but credit the Obama administration with the tenacity to secure substantial gains with South Korea for manufacturing and service industries — energy and environmental, financial, delivery and electronic commerce. Also pharmaceuticals and intellectual property protection for the entertainment industry.

Washington will share in the estimated $13 billion growth of exports. The state's fifth-largest trading partner is expected to account for $10 billion of the gain.

Years in the making, fresh opportunities are in sight.