Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016.
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While the Trans-Pacific Partnership has roiled parts of the Democratic Party, Buckhorn remains an unflagging supporter of the controversial trade deal in his role as chair of the TTP task force with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The U.S. and Singapore are among the 12 nations in the TPP that would cut trade barriers and tariffs. Clinton has said she opposes having a TPP vote in Congress during a lame-duck session.
“Hopefully after the election is over and the dust settles there will be more attention to the actual facts behind the deal and it won’t just be be a political symbol or a political football”, he said.
In a pitch to the political left, he also said that because of TPP, labor standards in Vietnam were improving and Malaysia was more seriously tackling human trafficking.
But the two leaders will also discuss a shared cause with less rosy prospects – the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal.
Obama says Trump’s criticism of a fallen Muslim-American soldier’s family is the latest evidence that the GOP presidential nominee isn’t ready to lead the country. To enter into force, the agreement needs to be approved by the lawmaking bodies of at least 85 per cent of the TPP region’s total economy – a mathematically impossible task without the U.S.
Obama said the Government of National Accord in Libya recognizes that this terrorist organisation in their midst is contrary to their national interests, as well as the world’s.
Although Obama may be able to offer few assurances to Lee regarding the TPP, other issues, the two leaders reinforced their commitment to the 2015 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, under which 1,000 Singaporean security personnel are trained or stationed in the United States each year. “This is daily and weekly, where they are distancing themselves from statements he is making”.
Trade has become a stand-in for the fight for the ideological soul of the Democratic Party, and among Republicans Donald Trump won the nomination based on defying his party’s position on trade. “Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries”.
The pact is created to counter growing Chinese economic power, and the 12 countries involved, including Singapore, account for 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and a market of 800 million people. Critics say the pact undercuts American workers by introducing lower-wage competition and gives huge corporations too much leeway. “But I think I’ve got the better argument”, Obama said.
He went on to mention Singapore’s “strong commercial ties and cultural ties” with China, saying the Southeast Asian nation “can serve as a useful partner with us and with China to assure that the US-China relationship moves in a productive way”.
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The last state dinner at the White House for Singapore occurred in October 1985, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, for Lee’s late father, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
