Kasich is the most notable Republican on the guest list.
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Campaigning in Kasich’s home state Wednesday, Trump promised an “America-first trade policy”, pledging to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and oppose the TPP. He’ll talk with reporters after he visits the Oval Office.
In appearing at the White House to help determine how to get the deal passed, Kasich, a Republican, is demonstrating how the agreement is one of the few that breaks party lines in both support and opposition.
John Kasich will join President Barack Obama and others Friday at the White House for a “bipartisan strategy session” to promote passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a trade deal that has become a key issue in this year’s election.
Kasich was a vocal TPP supporter during the presidential primary season, while eventual GOP nominee Donald Trump described it as a catastrophe that only he could stop.
Obama has made the 12-nation free trade deal the centerpiece of a diplomatic “pivot” to Asia, but the prospects for congressional approval have looked increasingly dim.
Kasich, by contrast, said free trade helps OH, whose companies sold more than $50 billion worth of products and service overseas a year ago.
U.S. President Barack Obama waves as he departs the White House in Washington, U.S., September 13, 2016.
Others attendees will include Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards; Democratic Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed; political independent and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and Henry Paulson, who was treasury secretary under Republican President George W. Bush.
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Kasich, who flew in Thursday night, will also grant a handful of interviews for cable TV and Sunday shows while he is in D.C.
