A White House spokesman said on August 29 that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal could still be approved by Congress before a new USA president takes office in January.
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Obama arrives in China on Saturday where he will meet President Xi Jinping, attend the G20 and then travel to Laos for two additional regional summits, returning to Washington on September 9.
“In this part of the world, which is the largest emerging market in the world, TPP is seen as a litmus test for U.S. leadership”, Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy National Security adviser, told reporters Monday. Foreign competition also has caused American workers’ wages to remain stagnant. Vetter says President Obama believes the best chance for passing TPP through Congress is during the lame-duck session following the November elections.
Earnest, the press secretary, said climate change, the global economy and the Asia Pacific region would be the main focus of the president’s travels.
Not only is the Senate Majority leader unlikely to bring TPP up, but House Speaker Paul Ryan says there’s not enough votes in the House to pass the measure.
Republican nominee Donald Trump has said he will rip up the agreement and start over.
Mr. Obama has staked USA influence in the Asia-Pacific region on the trade deal, hoping it will serve as a counterbalance to China’s economic power.
Almost all Democratic lawmakers in Congress oppose TPP, saying such deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement under President Bill Clinton cause the loss of good-paying union jobs in the U.S.
And Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has said she’s against it as well, even though she favored the proposal as U.S. Secretary of State before her run for the Oval Office.
If the US can’t complete the agreement, Mr. Rhodes said, “it would be seen as a significant setback, I think, for American leadership”.
Administration officials argue a failure to approve the trade pact would cede ground to China in the region and allow it to increasingly set the terms of world trade.
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According to poll, 52 percent of voters said they would be more likely to support TPP if they knew the deal would increase annual income in the U.S.by $131 billion. He traces America’s economic problems to bad trade deals reached by clueless USA negotiators outfoxed by craftier foreigners.
