The Pacific trade deal he’s working toward will be the “most progressive trade bill in history,” President Obama said Tuesday, pushing back against Democratic critics of the agreement being negotiated.
Acknowledging that “it’s never fun passing a trade bill in this town,” Obama predicted that Congress ultimately would approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership, citing labor and environmental protections in the deal that he said have been missing from past trade agreements.
Obama also dismissed the idea, voiced in recent days by liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, among others, that the negotiations involve undue secrecy.
“Congress will have a lot of time to review it when and if it’s completed,” Obama said, noting that Congress would have 60 days to review the deal before he signed it, and more time after that to vote for approval.
Obama defended the push for the trade deal in a press conference in the Rose Garden with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his top counterpart in the trade talks.
During the news event, which focused on Japanese and U.S. coordination in addressing China’s military and economic influence, Obama defended the Trans-Pacific Partnership on its merits, not just as a response to the rise of China.
“This is not simply a defensive agreement,” Obama said. “When 95 percent of the world’s markets are outsides our shores we’ve got to be out there competing.”
Earlier in the week, Obama and Republican congressional leaders sought to cast the trade agreement as a matter of countering China’s influence in the Pacific.
“If we don’t write the rules, China will write the rules out in that region,” the president told the Wall Street Journal in an interview Monday.
Abe’s visit comes as Obama has mounted an intense lobbying campaign to win over congressional skeptics of legislation that would pave the way for a trade deal among the U.S., Japan and 10 other Pacific nations. Japan’s willingness to allow U.S. auto and agricultural products into its markets is a critical question in the talks.
Congress is moving toward passage of legislation known as Trade Promotion Authority that would provide Obama with goals in trade negotiations while providing the administration with assurance of a quick vote in Congress, without amendments, on authorization of a deal.
That legislative effort has drawn fierce opposition from liberals and trade unions concerned about labor and environmental standards that would be set in the ultimate 12-nation trade deal. Of particular concern for Democrats such as Warren is a resolution mechanism for legal disputes that liberals worry could undermine domestic labor and financial protections.
Abe’s visit is expected to continue Tuesday night with a state dinner and reception at the White House.
