President Barack Obama speak to reporters during a joint news conference with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016.
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Delegates to both the Democratic and Republican party conventions last month showed hundreds of identical signs opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
But the US Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful business lobby in Washington, is not giving up on a possible vote in the “lame duck” congressional session after the November 8 elections. However tension regarding the deal has increased exponentially in the past few weeks as both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have come out against the agreement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said recently that prospects this year are “pretty slim”, while House Speaker Paul Ryan has accused Obama of messing up the negotiations.
With the upcoming election Congress is likely to stagnate, preventing the TPP from moving through Congress anytime soon.
John Podesta, chairman of Clinton’ s presidential campaign, said last week that Clinton wouldn’ t seek to simply tweak the language to approve the TPP deal if she became president. That includes many Republicans who partnered with the Democratic president a year ago to pass legislation giving him the negotiating authority he said he needed to strike the deal. “We’re not about renegotiation. We’re interested in a new approach”.
“If we don’t establish strong rules, norms for how trade and commerce are conducted in the Asia-Pacific region, then China will”, Obama said as he hosted Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House.
“Not only will the TPP benefit American workers and businesses, it will send a clear signal and a vital signal that America will continue to lead in the Asia- Pacific and enhance the partnerships that link our destinies together”, Lee said.
“I think in terms of America’s engagement of the region, you have put your reputation on the line”.
“If at the end, waiting at the altar the bride doesn’t arrive, I think there are people who are going to be very hurt”.
Lee will be honored with a state dinner Tuesday, the first held for a Singaporean leader since October 1985, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, for Lee’s late father, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The objective of the deal is to eliminate trade barriers and tariffs, 18,000 in total, streamline standards, and encourage investment between the countries. A canon fired repeatedly as a military band played the two countries’ national anthems.
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Democratic Senator Chris Coons said that “TPP is dead” for the rest of this Congress and this administration, and the next administration will have to work hard to shore up USA relations in the Asia-Pacific region.
