TPP opponents look to avoid ‘lame duck’ vote

Labor leaders and House Democrats told reporters Friday they would continue to lobby against a congressional vote on the sweeping 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership until after the presidential inauguration in January.    Opponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) gathered in Washington, DC on Friday to tell reporters they would continue to lobby against the sweeping 12-nation free trade agreement.
   AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other labor leaders, along with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and some of her fellow House Democrats said they will spend time during the congressional recess educating people about the agreement. In addition to the United States, the TPP includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Australia and Brunei.
   Unions and other groups opposing the TPP, which they say will cost the U.S. jobs, are looking to avoid a so-called “lame duck” vote during the period between the presidential election in November and inauguration in January. They say the incoming president should have the option to veto the agreement, which was negotiated by the current administration and requires only a yes or no vote from Congress for ratification.
   Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Hilary Clinton has said she opposes a lame duck vote, while Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, opposes the TPP entirely and has said he would negotiate a new agreement if elected.
   Pro-trade groups have long argued the importance of the TPP and other trade deals in minimizing barriers to lower consumer prices and job creation related to imports and exports. Congress appears to be in a wait-and-see mode until the presidential election in November, but trade advocates remain hopeful the deal as currently constructed will eventually pass.
   A recent study by the National Retail Federation, North America’s largest association of retailers, for example, found the deal would have a positive impact on U.S. retailers and consumers. The report noted that prices of imported retail merchandise are driven up considerably by tariffs, nearly all of which would eventually be eliminated under the TPP, which would in turn benefit consumers through lower prices.
   The report also found that international trade is a major supporter of U.S. employment, accounting for 6.9 million U.S. jobs in the retail industry.
   Congress last year gave the president renewed power to negotiate trade deals such, and some analysts have said they see granting that power only to eventually block ratification of the TPP as hypocritical.
   President Obama and his administration have been “engaging in a really very aggressive lobbying” campaign to promote the deal, Rep. DeLauro told reporters, and “we take them very seriously.”
   “Americans across the country are raising their voices in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and they have made the issue a central focus this year,” she said in a statement earlier in the week. “And while both candidates for president continue to reaffirm their opposition to this agreement, President Obama continues to push this flawed agreement onto the American public and Members of Congress.”
   “Congress is a body that represents the American people and a Lame Duck vote to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership will not only go against the American people’s will, it will be shameful and wrong. President Obama should not attempt to force a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Congress, before or after the election, not when the American people are overwhelmingly against it.”
   “Our hope is that there is no vote,” added Trumka, “[but] we’re prepared and ready to fight if there is.”