Liberal activists mocked President Obama’s summit Friday with state and local government leaders that was aimed at boosting the odds for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and said everyone already knows the deal is dead except Obama.
Obama wants the Senate to approve the 12-nation trade deal before the end of the year. But the activists, who argue that TPP will benefit corporations over workers, say the administration is in denial.
Lori Wallach, trade policy director for Public Citizen, said Friday’s event was noticeably lacking in the political leaders needed to get it through the current Congress or the next one. “Who was notably not part of the TPP sales team: the Democratic and GOP presidential nominees, the congressional leaders of either party, the growing bloc of GOP House members that are coming out against TPP … or the vast majority of congressional Democrats or anyone representing president Obama’s political base,” she said.
Neil Sroka, spokesman for the Howard Dean-founded Democracy for America, said the deal was already yesterday’s news. “The progressive grassroots united and won this,” he said.
Obama convened the meeting, which included such notables as independent New York Gov. Michael Bloomberg; Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio,; Gov. John Bel Edwards, D-La.; Atlanta Gov. Kasim Reed, a Democrat; and former Treasury Secretary during the George W. Bush administration Henry Paulson in order to make the case that the proposed deal would not only boost the economy by lowering tariffs and other trade barriers but also enhance national security.
“Right now, China is pushing hard to create their own trading regime out in Asia. And I promise you that China is not going to be setting up a bunch of rules that are going to be to the advantage of American companies and American businesses. If we are not in there and making sure that fair trade is established in the Asia market, we’re going to be cut out,” the president said.
Friday’s summit came almost a month after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the TPP had “serious flaws” and he wasn’t going to schedule a vote on it after the fall election. That seemingly killing TPP’s last, best hope for passage. Both Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump have come out against the trade deal, meaning that if the current Congress does not pass it, whoever wins the fall election would be unlikely to re-submit the deal for approval in the next Congress.
The deal has drawn staunch opposition from Democrats who have been prodded to oppose it by liberal groups and organized labor. Obama was counting on support from Republicans, traditionally strong backers of free trade deals, to get it through, but support for TPP has been tepid on that side of the aisle as well.
“It needs to be rewritten,” Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., told a Michigan-based radio station this week. “There are a number of provisions that simply will hurt Michigan jobs in a major way.”
Shane Larson, legislative director for the Communications Workers of America, said the president was wasting political capitol by fighting people who are otherwise his supporters.
“It’s unfortunate that we are not able to focus exclusively at this time on defeating Donald Trump and electing a Democratic Senate and House in less than two months. Instead, President Obama is forcing the entire progressive community to use our resources in this critical election season to try and defeat the corporate drafted, jobs destroying TPP,” Larson said.
