Hillary's statement on TPP for all to see.

[Thinkingabout]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/politics/hillary-clinton-trade-issues-iowa-trip/index.html




Cedar Falls, Iowa (CNN)—Hillary Clinton took aim Tuesday at two core components of a massive free trade pact that President Barack Obama is negotiating — signaling some agreement with the deal's liberal critics.

The Democratic front-runner in the 2016 presidential race said she wants to see rules included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would penalize countries for driving down the value of their currencies in order to give their exports a price advantage in the U.S. market.

And she said she's concerned about a provision that would give "corporations more power to overturn health and environmental and labor rules than consumers have."

"I think that is a problem," Clinton said during a roundtable event in Iowa, when one woman participating in the event asked her about the deal.

It's as close to staking out a clear position on the trade deal that Clinton has come — though she left wiggle room Tuesday.

"I want to judge the final agreement. I have been for trade agreements; I have been against trade agreements," she said.

[DURHAM D]

1. Doesn't count

unless she goes full on attack against Obama.

[Hoyt]

2. I like her responses on TPP. Rather than condemning it completely, she's try to cajole

Obama and trade negotiators into something that would be really good for us and the world. I applaud her.

[William769]

3. That's whaht a uniter does.

They don't say it's my way or the Highway, that's why Washington is so screwed up right now.

[Hoyt]

4. Exactly. That's why I think she has best chance of getting stuff through Congress. I like Sanders,

Last edited Thu Jun 11, 2015, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)

but I think Congress will thwart him on everything, just like Obama.

[glinda]

5. That is why people will have to have Bernie's back by electing support.

[hrmjustin]

7. This is the Hillary Clinton room.

[Jim Lane]

8. There is zero chance that any amount of cajoling will produce a TPP addressing currency manipulation

First, note that the agreement has been in negotiation since 2010. The general expectation is that a finalized TPP will be presented for approval within the next several months. Right off the bat, you could confidently say that a U.S. effort to add a major and highly contentious chapter, in a comparatively short time frame, would be doomed.

Second, there will be no such U.S. effort anyway. The Obama administration believes, possibly correctly, that there's enough resistance among the other nations that there's no way an agreement could be reached that they would go along with. Consider this April 21, 2015 news story:

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday joined 10 former department heads in pushing back against congressional efforts to add currency manipulation provisions to pending trade deals.

Lew wrote to congressional leaders arguing that requiring the policy as part of fast-track legislation risks the future of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and President Obama's broader trade agenda.

“Seeking enforceable currency provisions would likely derail the conclusion of the TPP given the deep reservations held by our trading partners,” he wrote.

. . . .

President Obama said several months ago that it would be too complicated to negotiate adding currency provisions to trade deals.

I've hit the excerpting limit so you'll have to go to the link if you want to read about the conflicting arguments over currency manipulation. What's pretty clear, though, is that we can take it as given that there will be nothing about it in the TPP.

[Jamaal510]

6. That's a clever stance.

She's not jumping to conclusions one way or the other, and is waiting for it to unravel. Posters were claiming just the other day that she supports the TPP, even though she came out with this quote a few weeks ago. And I doubt that her position on this issue would have a significant impact on her campaign, positively or negatively. Most people (including myself) don't fully know about the TPP, and you don't hear many ordinary people just casually talking about it like with other issues. In this situation, I find myself getting turned-off by political figures and personalities who I generally agree with. There's even an article on The People's View, where various unions have threatened to support Republicans if Democrats back the TPP. They're basically willing to throw everything out the window over one disagreement. There's just so much misinformation and hysteria over an unfinished document.