Obama Meets With Political, Business Leaders to Discuss TPP Advancement
President Barack Obama met with a group of business and political leaders Sept. 15 to strategize how to effectively spread their message of support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ensure a congressional vote on the pact this year. During a same-day White House press conference, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said that the TPP would help secure U.S. leadership among world powers marked by a repressive China and an unpredictable Russia, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said that it would help boost U.S. manufacturing interests in communities across the U.S. Kasich said that while trade brings economic benefits, it also inevitably hurts some workers. That’s why the U.S. should pursue good trade adjustment programs and streamline all levels of U.S. education for innovation, he said.
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Kasich said the Obama administration and TPP supporters must make the case to congressional lawmakers, including potential opponents, that the deal would help support their communities and advance U.S. national security interests relating to Asia. “Could you imagine if … we turned our back on those nations in Asia that are looking to us in a great sense of partnership, to give them the courage and the strength to stand against a rising China?” Kasich said. “So both from an economic point of view and a geopolitical point of view, where will we be if we turn this down?” Kasich called for lawmakers from both parties to work beyond the politics surrounding the deal to help Americans, saying that although they may have qualms with the TPP, not many want to see it die. Kasich also wrote in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal (here) that the TPP wouldn’t represent a substantial change in U.S. trade policy, but would be crucial in helping businesses find new growth opportunities.
Because presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will not likely reverse their opposition toward the deal, Congress should consider the deal in 2016, Reed said. Clinton or Trump, however, would likely honor the pact while in office, Reed added. In addition to Kasich and Reed, Bloomberg CEO Michael Bloomberg, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and James Stavridis, dean of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe while a U.S. Navy officer, met with Obama to strategize advancement of the TPP.
Separately, Bloomberg and U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue called on Congress to vote on and pass the TPP before next year, in a Bloomberg opinion piece (here). They argued that most Americans think “more trade” will help the U.S. economy, and that the U.S. maintains a trade surplus with its current 20 free trade agreement partners. Bloomberg and Donohue said the U.S. will never again be the manufacturing mecca it once was, mostly because jobs were automated out of existence, not because of trade. High-wage jobs will depend on free access to foreign markets for materials, labor and customers, and the TPP will demolish associated obstacles, they said. “Politicians who blame trade for sluggish economic growth are merely diverting attention from their own failure to deal with critical issues that are holding back businesses, including addressing the country’s antiquated infrastructure,” Bloomberg and Donohue said. “It’s imperative that the strong majority of voters who support expanded trade urge members of Congress to pass TPP this year -- and hold them accountable for the lost jobs that will result if they fail to do so.”
The TPP recently picked up another supporter, as the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) wrote in a letter to Congress that the pact’s tariff reductions on scrap commodities and recycling equipment exports will bring tens of millions in additional sales revenue for U.S. recycling businesses, according to a press release (here). “Opening new markets and expanding access to existing trade partners, the TPP will generate millions of dollars in tax revenue, make a positive contribution to our balance of trade, and create thousands of recycling jobs across America,” ISRI Chairman Mark Lewon and ISRI President Robin Wiener said in a statement. “The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of recycled commodities. Within the U.S. scrap commodities account for one of the largest exports by value, making up more than a quarter of the industry’s economic activity.” While the U.S. unilaterally removed tariffs for those products, other nations have slapped nearly $700 million worth of duties on U.S. ferrous scrap exports every year, and the U.S. exported $17.5 billion worth of scrap commodities in 2015, ISRI said. House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., recently outlined the political challenges for passing TPP (see 1609140044).