President Obama on Friday downplayed Democratic divisions over a bill that would give him special authority to strike one of the world’s largest trade accords, arguing that the new power is needed to ensure the United States can compete in the global marketplace.
“We can’t stop the global economy on our shores – we’ve got to get in there and compete,” he said Friday during a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The president said he understands his own party’s concerns that previous trade deals led to so-called outsourcing: creation of jobs overseas and reduction in demand in different parts of the American labor market. But he said the new trade promotion authority measure, the result of a Senate compromise reached Thursday, reflects lessons from the past.
The trade promotion authority bill, Obama said, is “the most far-reaching and progressive” in history and includes “strong, enforceable labor provisions and strong enforceable environmental provisions.”
“I will be able to show when the final agreement is presented that this is absolutely good for American businesses and Americans workers … it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Every president since Richard Nixon has had the authority to negotiate trade treaties with other nations, he said, and previous trade deals during his tenure have not led to a complete fracturing of the Democratic party.
“The politics around trade have always been tough with the Democratic party,” he said. “The point I’ve made with my labor friends is that the companies that are looking for cheap labor have already left — and we’re already at a disadvantage right now.”
“Being opposed to this trade authority is an endorsement of the status quo,” he said, pointing to the trade imbalance on auto exports in Japan and the United States as an example.
The bill gives Congress the ability to vote on the upcoming 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, once it is completed, but would deny lawmakers the right to amend what is amounting to the largest trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994.
Obama is promoting the TPP as critical to America’s economic future.
“Ninety-five percent of the world’s most populous markets are going to be in Asia,” he said. “If we do not shape the rules then China will set up rules that advantage Chinese workers and Chinese business. It will set the stage for the next 20 or 30 years of us being locked out.”
