The White House Wednesday attempted to downplay any differences with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over a wide-ranging trade deal with Pacific Rim nations, suggesting that no “distance” existed between their respective camps.
“I believe that if you look at the points that are being raised in terms of human rights, environmental protections and labor protections, those are important priorities for this president,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters on Air Force One. “So I haven’t seen anything to suggest any distance.”
As Obama presses Democrats to give him fast-track power, which would allow trade deals to go through Congress without amendment, Clinton is taking a cautious view of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact among 12 Pacific Rim nations.
Progressives have furiously lobbied against the White House’s trade push, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Wednesday using a procedural maneuver to at least temporarily prevent a Senate committee from taking up the fast-track bill.
Clinton has not publicly opposed the deal but has not endorsed it either.
“Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security,” she said on the campaign trail Tuesday.
Obama is attempting to bolster his legacy with the massive trade deal, a rare big-ticket item that has overwhelming GOP support, while not alienating his own base.
Schultz told reporters traveling with the president to Florida Wednesday for a climate event that Obama would discuss trade during an Organizing for Action meeting Thursday.
