It’s odd to see a sitting president and his endorsed successor disagreeing so strongly, and then effectively campaigning against each other on one big priority, Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal:
Administration officials including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Agriculture Undersecretary Alexis Taylor are touting the deal across the country in meetings with business and agricultural leaders in a bid to generate positive local headlines. Lew met with Fortune 500 executives in Minneapolis earlier this month, while Taylor will promote the deal in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the National Corn Growers Association grass-roots leaders’ summit.
Here’s the thing: Hillary Clinton worked on the deal as Secretary of State, praised it in her book, and has generally been supportive of free trade in her career, supporting NAFTA and Most Favored Nation status for China. Her opposition to TPP appeared only after Bernie Sanders emerged as her major foe in the primary. The State Department currently contends that TPP is vital to national security:
There is no question that our security and prosperity will be increasingly tied to the Asia Pacific. If America doesn’t set the rules of the road for trade in this region, other nations will. And there is no question that an emerging China will be better positioned to shape trade agreements that set America back and do not represent our values.
… A failure to follow through with TPP — an agreement that we shaped, alongside countries that include traditional allies and emerging partners — will send a message of disengagement at a time when we need to be demonstrating leadership.
Are we to believe that Hillary Clinton spent years working a trade deal that she disagreed with all along?
How likely is it that President Hillary Clinton would hold the line and block TPP? How much more likely is it that she would throw in some window-dressing amendment and declare her concerns addressed?
Would Hillary Clinton Really Oppose TPP as President?