Hillary Clinton comes out against TPP

Hillary Clinton campaigning in Florida last week.

This move from Clinton is not altogether surprising in the context of her political evolution regarding trade deals.

The worldwide Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today welcomed the announcement by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that she will oppose the deeply flawed and secretly negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership.

Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton has expressed her disagreement with the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which herself backed when she was secretary of state during Obama’s first term.

But Mrs Clinton, front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said that given what she knows about the deal, it falls short of her “high bar” for creating American jobs, raising wages and advancing U.S. national security. “But the bar here is very high and, based on what I have seen, I don’t believe this agreement has met it”, she said in the statement.

US Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton has spoken out against a major Pacific trade deal, saying she is “not in favour of what I have learned about it”. And as a key member of the Obama White House, she assuredly had access to particulars within the trade framework that were being constructed in secret, and outside the purview of the American people.

Clinton also spoke positively of the deal in her 2014 memoir, Hard Choices.

The Democratic front-runner urged Obama to heed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s calls to renegotiate better protections for USA workers.

“We do need to set a high bar for trade agreements”. In an email to supporters earlier this week, Sanders said he would do “all that I can” to derail the deal he painted as good for Wall Street and large corporations.

Clinton said she also has reservations because the deal does’t address currency manipulation and because it appears that “the pharmaceutical companies may have gotten more benefits, and patients and consumers fewer”.

Clinton said,”What I know about it as of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it. I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about the agreement, but I’m anxious”.

Clinton’s opposition to the deal will come as welcome news to trade unions, who overwhelmingly oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership and fear it could cost millions of American jobs. While 15 of 19 formal rounds of TPP negotiations took place on her watch, it is possible that in the latter rounds, or in the subsequent series of high-level meetings between negotiators and ministers, the agreement changed radically in ways she had no knowledge of.

Japan, Chile, Peru and Mexico have joined the United States in the TPP, among other nations. So I don’t believe we can afford to keep giving new agreements the benefit of the doubt.

Her newfound opposition – after not taking a position on the issue for months – protects her left flank against Bernie Sanders’ challenge; it helps her solidify her support with organized labor; and it makes Vice President Joe Biden, the only Democrat in favor of the accord (if he gets into the race).