Trans-Pacific Partnership Taking on Water, May Sink
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President Obama, no doubt fixated on his legacy, would love to win ratification of a major multi-lateral trade agreement now under negotiation with 11 other Pacific Rim countries.
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There are two big problems. One is that Congress is in a less charitable mood where trade is concerned than it was the last time it was asked to ratify a free trade agreement. The other is Japan, which stubbornly refuses to drop its tariffs on agricultural exports, even though all other parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have committed to eliminate or phase out their tariffs on everything.
As for the first problem, Obama doesn’t have trade promotion authority, or TPA, in his pocket and it’s far from certain that he’ll get it. TPA gives the president the power to submit finished free trade agreements to Congress for a simple up or down vote. Congress can’t alter the agreements in any way.
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Obama’s only hope is that Congress votes to give him TPA in a post-election lame-duck session. By then, the TPP negotiations may be finished. If a majority of the House and Senate don’t like what’s in it, they’re not going to give him TPA.
To put it bluntly: no TPA, no trade agreements.
A lot of Democrats feel burned for having granted Obama TPA for the Korea trade deal because the US-Korea trade deficit has gone up by 37 percent since it took effect in March 2012.
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbrinkley/2014/10/10/trans-pacific-partnership-taking-on-water-may-sink/
Good, let this Corporate Rights agreement masquerading as a trade agreement die.
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