Obama’s trade deal faces stiff headwinds
The White House’s announcement Monday of an international trade deal covering 40 percent of the world’s economy sets the stage for a bruising, months-long congressional battle that is already spilling into the 2016 presidential race.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations from Asia to Latin America, faces stiff headwinds in both parties.
The fiercest criticism comes from liberals, who have long complained that previous free trade deals burdened U.S. workers and that TPP is more of the same bad policy.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Democratic presidential candidate, underscored that sentiment, deriding the deal as “disastrous” and vowing to push his Senate colleagues to defeat it.
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump was similarly blunt, tweeting Monday afternoon that the accord was “a terrible deal.”
And while most Republicans voted to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate the sweeping agreement, GOP votes for the TPP may be harder to come by.
House and Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have warned that provisions on tobacco, currency policy and high-tech medicines that fly in the face of congressional directives could lead them to oppose the long-awaited agreement.
Within hours of the deal being struck in Atlanta, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said he was en route back to Washington, where he will lead the administration’s sales pitch to lawmakers who must approve the agreement.
“We’re confident that people will see this as a very strong deal,” he said.
Leaders from the 12 nations in talks worked nonstop since Thursday to complete negotiations, which have been building for years, navigating several complex issues that had the potential to foil a final agreement.
The last compromises covered patent protections for high-level drugs, opened markets for dairy and sugar, and set protections for the U.S. auto sector.
By late Monday, however, it was clear that major obstacles to final approval exist across the political spectrum.
Labor unions and environmentalists, for instance, have argued the agreement favors big business over workers.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Monday, “We are disappointed that our negotiators rushed to conclude the TPP in Atlanta, given all the concerns that have been raised by American stakeholders and members of Congress.”
He said it appears “that many problematic concessions were made in order to finalize the deal.”
“We ask the administration to release the text immediately, and urge legislators to exercise great caution in evaluating the TPP.”
Read More: Obama’s trade deal faces stiff headwinds | TheHill