White House officials said Wednesday that they had obtained the “best possible deal” in their negotiations with 11 other Pacific Rim countries for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The deal would be a major boon to the economy, they argued, by cutting over 18,000 tariffs imposed by other countries on exported American goods.
“President Obama was clear that when it came to closing TPP negotiations, we weren’t going to take just any deal, we needed a great deal — the best possible deal for the American people. That’s what we closed in Atlanta this past weekend,” Jeff Zients, director the White House’s National Economic Council, told reporters.
The administration nevertheless faces a tough sale on the deal, which has attracted opposition from labor, environment and other liberal activist groups, who argue it will create too much competition for American workers and industries and give corporations too much leverage to challenge environmental regulations.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who as President Obama’s secretary of state was involved in the negotiations, came out against it Wednesday. Congressional Republican leaders, whose support is crucial to its passage, have sounded skeptical notes as well.
Zients argued that the deal, which took several years to negotiate and was reportedly finalized Monday, boosted labor and environmental standards, but said that the main beneficiaries would be companies seeking entry into foreign markets previously closed off to them. The administration released a glossy brochure Wednesday showing the industries in each U.S. state that would benefit, a clear bid to win over wavering lawmakers.
“TPP provides American businesses with a level playing field,” Zients said. “At its core, TPP is a massive tax cut for American businesses that will help workers and businesses sell made in America products around the world.”
He added that is was important for the U.S. to strike the deal in order to prevent China, which is not a party to the deal, from being able to “write the rules” for trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The more people know about this deal, the more they will be persuaded that it is the right thing to do for American workers and American businesses,” Zients said.
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman stressed that benefits would be available across all industries that export, from beer brewers who face tariffs as high as 47 percent in TPP countries to car engines manufactured in Michigan that face up to 50 percent tariffs. All will see the rates go to zero.
Froman said that despite the announcement that negotiations were completed Monday, they were still “working with the other countries to finalize the details of the text.” As a result, the document would not be immediately available for the public, though they hope to have it released “as soon as possible,” likely within 30 days. The administration must provide 60 days of public notice before signing a trade deal, at which point it is submitted to Congress for approval.
He declined to give an exact number for the amount of jobs that the deal would create, saying that various independent groups would soon be providing their own estimates. “But we are very confident that this is going to be a substantial boost for jobs,” Froman said.
U.S. tariffs on imported goods average 1.4 percent. U.S. goods often face tariffs ranging between 40-70 percent. The 11 other countries in the trade deal are Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Mexico, Chile, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Peru.
