The leading House Democrat on trade policy said Thursday he opposes a major Pacific trade agreement negotiated by the U.S. and 11 other countries, underscoring the hostile political environment President Barack Obama[1] faces advancing one of his biggest remaining priorities.
Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees trade, said he doesn't support the Trans-Pacific Partnership in its current form because it contains insufficient provisions to protect labor, lacks binding rules to prevent currency manipulation, and could ease the movement of the auto industry from his home state to Mexico.
"To not get it right is to get it wrong, and this TPP, as negotiated, is not right for America," Mr. Levin told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
The Republican leaders of the House and Senate, who long supported Mr. Obama's trade policy, have expressed concerns this year about the final agreement, questioned the level of support in their party, and even suggested delaying a vote on the deal until after the election.
Many Democrats have already said they oppose the deal, backed by unions which warn it could send some U.S. manufacturing jobs to Vietnam, the least-developed economy in the TPP.
While Mr. Levin's opposition to the deal isn't surprising, it could influence other Democrats, since he was the only member of Congress to attend the last two TPP negotiating sessions. He also held a series of hearings with experts on both sides and has supported some previous trade agreements.
Mr. Levin declined to handicap the prospects for the TPP, but he said if Hillary Clinton were elected, "I would have confidence in how she would address these trade issues."
The TPP, which includes Japan but not China, was signed in February, and some observers say Congress could consider the deal in an up-or-down vote as early as this year, perhaps after the November elections. The chairman of the Business Round Table—Caterpillar chief executive Doug Oberhelman[2]—said Wednesday that there could be a window for voting on the deal this year.
In negotiating with 11 other countries, the Obama administration had to strike compromises on key provisions of the agreement, leading to some disappointments for leading Republicans and their allies in the business community on the one hand, and for key Democrats and their backers among labor and environmental groups on the other.
The fact that few lawmakers on either side are openly embracing the TPP is a testament to the heightened polarization in Congress and an apparent resistance to working with the administration in an election year, during Mr. Obama's remaining months in office.
The top two presidential candidates on both the Republican and Democratic sides say they oppose the TPP.
MORE:
In Murky 2016 Contest, Clear Opposition to Trade Agreements[3]
References
- ^ Barack Obama (topics.wsj.com)
- ^ Doug Oberhelman (topics.wsj.com)
- ^ In Murky 2016 Contest, Clear Opposition to Trade Agreements (blogs.wsj.com)
