Emotions continue to run high among some Bernie Sanders supporters in Wisconsin’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker met with FedEx executives and other business leaders at the Greater Memphis Area Chamber last week to talk about how the pending trade deal would impact Tennessee businesses.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, longtime best friend to the Clintons, said Tuesday that he believes Hillary Clinton will support the TPP trade deal if elected president, with some tweaks.
Brian Coy, a spokesman for McAuliffe, said he had no “expectation” that Clinton would flip-flop on the issue and has not told him anything to that effect. Her husband signed NAFTA, and she voted for a host of agreements during her time in the U.S. Senate.
The differing world views of Hillary Clinton, the globetrotting former USA secretary of state, and Donald Trump, who preaches “America First”, are on display on the issue of trade. “She will support her global corporate donors who want cheap labor, and foreign governments who want to provide jobs to their citizens at the expense of Americans”, the Trump campaign’s press release read. In fact, those Democrats are rallying against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal that has driven a wedge between many Democrats and their president, Barack Obama. That’s a problem for Clinton: Two-thirds of Americans already view her as untrustworthy.
Clinton said during the primary campaign that she rejects the trade deal, which was signed in February and would link the United States and 11 other Pacific nations – including Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico – through lower tariffs.
Sanders, the Vermont senator, has always been opposed to TPP, calling it a “disastrous trade agreement created to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and the foundations of American democracy”.
He’s essentially saying, I told you so – and this is another reason you can’t trust Clinton.
In Philadelphia, disdain for the deal has been palpable and a rare point of unity between supporters of Clinton and Sanders.
Both major party presidential nominees – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump – also oppose TPP.
Can things get more awkward? .
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is perhaps the single biggest difference Obama and Clinton have at this stage.
Clinton had faced significant pressure from the Democratic grassroots to come out against the TPP, and the issue has become a pivotal one for Sanders supporters who are still holding out their support.
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But the debate over TPP has also helped broaden support for domestic policies, such as infrastructure development and educational programs, to help Americans adapt to rapid economic change, Froman said.
