The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will open up markets to more United States goods, increase labour and environmental standards and help bolster security in a key region of the world, Obama said.
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The TPP was negotiated by the Obama administration and was signed by the 12 participating governments, including Singapore, in February but it has yet to be ratified by Congress.
“I’ll continue making the case for TPP, and I’m optimistic that the United States Congress will ultimately support this landmark agreement”, Obama said in an email interview with The Straits Times ahead of a visit by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are both against it.
Obama acknowledged problems with trade deals that had cost some jobs while adding others, but said “the answer is not cutting off globalization”, and promised his TPP deal addressed numerous concerns of past deals.
“That’s what TPP does”, he said. Hundreds of USA military members in blue and white uniforms formed an honor guard, some carrying bayoneted rifles.
The Prime Minister is in the United States for an official visit and will be hosted to a state dinner by US President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday (Wednesday morning Singapore time).
Lee says the world has changed dramatically since the US and Singapore opened diplomatic relations 50 years ago.
Mr Obama used the press conference to unleash his strongest attack on Mr Trump, describing the real estate mogul and former reality TV star as “woefully unprepared” and “unfit to serve as president”. But critics say the pact undercuts American workers by introducing lower-wage competition and gives huge corporations too much leeway.
Singapore, a city state of 5.7 million people, is heavily dependent on global trade for its prosperity.
Last week, U.S. Trade Representative Michael FromanMichael FromanPresident Obama optimistic Congress will pass TPP this year Froman: Too early to start trade talks with the UK Dems push for US, EU cooperation on China’s market status MORE said that the failure of Congress to pass the TPP would give China “the keys to the castle” on trade and would fail to calm concerns about job losses here. In 2004, it became the first Asian nation to strike a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. Last year, the bilateral trade in goods totaled $47 billion, with the U.S. enjoying a $10 billion surplus. He said it would also add heft add heft to Washington’s so-called “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific. Under Obama, the USA has deployed littoral combat ships in Singapore, and last December, deployed a P-8 Poseidon spy plane there for the first time, amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea. He paid tribute to the tiny nation’s transformation from third world country to a first world country, saying it “punches above its weight”. Prime Minister Lee discussed the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP, and other topics.
Lee made note that Singapore founder Lee Kuan Yew was the first prime minister to officially visit Washington at the invitation of president Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1967.
Dropping out of the TPP could harm US relations with its allies in Asia, and may cause Japan to question whether it can continue to depend on the United States for security, he said.
U.S. -Asia relations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal involving both Singapore and the United States are on the agenda. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill are at right.
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President Barack Obama and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong walk on stage to begin a state arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016.
