Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday that the White House is looking at rejoining talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership to use the trade deal as a buffer against any Chinese tariffs targeting the U.S. Perdue didn’t mention a recent disavowal of that approach by President Trump himself.
Perdue said he was encouraging Trump to make the move, arguing the administration may be able to reach better terms than the Obama administration negotiated.
“We would welcome that arrangement with joining those other 11 countries. It would be a great unification against China,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s agriculture subcommittee.
Perdue didn’t comment on a tweet by Trump late Tuesday night which appeared to reject the idea of going back to TPP: “While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States. Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers. Look how bad WTO is to U.S.,” Trump said. It’s not clear if Perdue was aware of it. The initial question from the committee regarding TPP was based on lawmakers’ confusion over the administration’s stance on the deal.
China has threatened tariffs against major U.S. commodities including beef, pork, and soybeans, following U.S. threats to levy tariffs against China based on its trade policies involving technology. The U.S. has been looking for alternative markets for those goods should China follow through with its threats, and TPP could provide those new outlets.
Trump stunned many when he told a contingent of farm state senators and governors last week that he was directing U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and economic adviser Larry Kudlow to look into getting the U.S. re-engaged in the 11-nation trade pact. The president, a longtime critic of free-trade policies, had loudly and repeatedly denounced the Obama administration’s efforts to make the U.S. the pact’s 12th member and formally rejected it as one of his first acts as president. He called it a “terrible one-sided deal that … enriches other countries at our expense.”
The TPP deal was often promoted by the Obama administration and its supporters as a wedge against China. “Increasing trade in this area of the world would be a boon to American businesses and American workers, and it would give us a leg up on our economic competitors, including one we hear a lot about on the campaign trail these days: China,” then-President Barack Obama said in a 2016 op-ed.
Perdue was at the meeting when Trump made the announcement and said he was one of the ones encouraging the U.S. to get involved with TPP.
“I reminded the president that when he likes to talk about, ‘You get a better deal when you withdraw,’ I said, ‘Mr. President, we’ve already withdrawn from TPP. Let’s go get a better deal.’ So I’m encouraged by that,” the agriculture secretary said.
Perdue said that “hopefully” re-entering the trade deal would be part of the discussion as Trump meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his retreat in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
