<nettime> Common Dreams > Trump's opposition to TPP

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< http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/28/trump-just-drove-truck-through-hole-dnc-platform-panel-left-clintons-tpp-promise >


Trump Just Drove a Truck Through Hole DNC Platform Panel Left in
Clinton's TPP Promise

	Tuesday, June 28, 2016
	by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

	Platform committee's waffling on trade leaves Clinton vulnerable
	to Trump's predictable attacks

Laying bare how dangerous it could be for Democrats to ignore
populist opposition to corporate-friendly "free trade" deals,
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked
Hillary Clinton for her stance on trade in general and the Trans
Pacific Partnership (TPP) in particular.

Speaking in Monessen, Pennsylvania, Trump said the "TPP would be
the death blow for American manufacturing" and vowed to "withdraw"
the U.S. from the agreement.

He said Clinton took "a leading part" in drafting the 12-nation
deal, noting that the former secretary of state "praised or pushed
the TPP on 45 separate occasions, and even called it the 'gold
standard,'" according to prepared remarks.

"Hillary Clinton was totally for the TPP just a short while ago,
but when she saw my stance, which is totally against, she was
shamed into saying she would be against it too," he said. "But
have no doubt, she will immediately approve it if it is put before
her, guaranteed. She will do this just as she has betrayed
American workers for Wall Street throughout her career."

With this claim, MSNBC reporter Alex Seitz-Wald wrote on Twitter,
Trump appeared to be "speaking directly to [Bernie] Sanders
supporters." Sanders has made opposition to the TPP and other
rights-trampling deals a cornerstone of his campaign.

Trump also said he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) -- and placed partial blame for that deal also at
Clinton's feet. "It was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA in 1993, and
Hillary Clinton who supported it," he said.

The real estate mogul's speech comes on the heels of the
Democratic National Committee's platform drafting panel voting not
to oppose the TPP, despite the fact that both Clinton and Sanders
have come out against the deal. As Common Dreams reported, the
Clinton-allied majority on the committee outvoted the Sanders
delegates 10-5 to defeat the anti-TPP measure, citing President
Barack Obama's support.

In doing so, argues Dave Johnson of the Campaign for America's
Future in an op-ed Tuesday, they handed Trump "powerful
ammunition" for his claims that Clinton is only "pretending" to
oppose the agreement.

Killing the Messenger

Johnson writes:

	TPP and past "trade" deals are incredibly unpopular with
	working-class voters, and Republicans are preparing a full-scale
	attack on Clinton's credibility over the unpopular TPP. They are
	making the case that Clinton actually supports TPP but is
	pretending she does not in order to get votes. They say the
	president's efforts to pass TPP in the post-election "lame duck"
	session back up their claims. This pro-TPP vote by Clinton
	supporters on the platform committee will likely bolster the
	Republican argument.

	[...] It appears that the party elite just don't understand the
	public's overwhelming opposition to TPP. The pro-TPP members of
	the platform committee say they must support a Democratic
	president. But what about the interests of the public, labor and
	working people, the environment, the economy and their own
	nominee?

In an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday, Sanders
agreed that establishment voices on the committee appeared to not
only be working against the party, but undermining Clinton's own
stated position.

"I was really quite surprised to see that Secretary Clinton's
delegates rejected our proposal to kill the TPP despite the fact
that she has indicated she does not want to see it get onto the
floor [of the U.S. Congress]," Sanders told Mitchell.

Meanwhile, as in the primary campaign, Clinton's refusal to come
out swinging against corporate-friendly trade deals is costing her
support of working-class voters in the general election -- a dynamic
Public Citizen's Lori Wallach predicted back in March, when she
declared: "Americans' opposition to job-killing trade policies
fueled the stunning Bernie Sanders upset victory in Michigan. But
it also could be a deciding factor in the general election,
especially with Donald Trump being the likely GOP nominee. The
outcome of the Michigan primary shows the potency of trade issues
and foreshadows the trouble Hillary Clinton could face winning key
Midwestern states in a race against Trump."

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