Major trade deals should not be voted on during lame-duck sessions of Congress, the Republican Party’s official platform states.
[Daily News| July 18, 2016 |Inside US Trade]
The platform – introduced today at the party convention in Cleveland – doesn’t name the Trans-Pacific Partnership or take a stance on it, but it does come out against a lame-duck vote, which many supporters see as the only chance for its passage this year.
The presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump, is a staunch opponent of the TPP, and some of the platform’s rhetoric echoes his campaign talk. “We need better negotiated trade agreements that put America first,” it states. “When trade agreements have been carefully negotiated with friendly democracies, they have resulted in millions of new jobs here at home supported by our exports. When those agreements do not adequately protect U.S. interests, U.S. sovereignty, or when they are violated with impunity, they must be rejected.”
