GOP senator: Party’s shift against free trade ‘disconcerting’

“We cannot grow economically if we shut ourselves off,” Flake said during an event at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “There are going to have to be some way for people to get back on board [with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal].”

Earlier in September, Flake said he still couldn’t support Trump for president. Trump later tweeted that Flake was “a very weak and ineffective Senator.”

Arthur Brooks, AEI’s president, reiterated his support for free trade while introducing the event. “Free trade is one of the pillars of the free enterprise system that has indeed pulled 2 billion people out of poverty … since the 1970s,” Brooks said. “It’s important to fight for it. It’s what our scholars fight for.”

United States Trade Representative Michael Froman also spoke on behalf of the Obama administration in favor of the TPP. “You don’t get to vote on automation, you don’t get to vote on globalization, and so people, with the trade agreements, use it as a scapegoat for other economic ills,” Froman said. “My message to them is: your concerns are legitimate. But … trade agreements is how you shape the global economy, to make sure, first, that it’s fair for American workers.”

Flake said that a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership was his top priority in Congress’ lame duck session. “For me, [TPP] would be at the top of the list, it really will, but I’m not sure that others feel the same way,” Flake said. Congress has the rest of this week and next to fund the federal government, and then has only four weeks of legislating planned before the end of this congressional session.

“It’s far easier for a political candidate to point to a plant that’s been closed and then blame trade, whether trade had anything to do with it, or just modernization or automation or anything else,” Flake said. “It’s easier to do that than to quantify, in 30 seconds, the benefits of free trade.”

Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.