If Hillary Clinton wants increased jobs, higher wages and improved national security to be part of any U.S. trade deal, then by Tom Vilsack’s logic, she should support the Trans-Pacific Partnership
[Doug| April 21, 2016 |Politico]
“Well, let me answer it this way and not necessarily in response to a question that’s posed based on what Secretary Clinton’s criteria is,” the agriculture secretary said in an interview with Pro Trade’s Doug Palmer ahead of a trip to Japan and Vietnam today. “I look at the [American] Farm Bureau evaluation from an agriculture perspective, and what that evaluation tells me is that exports will increase and farmer income will increase.”
Vilsack, a close political ally of Clinton, avoided directly challenging his former Cabinet colleague on the trade deal, which the former secretary of state opposes for reasons that include the lack of enforceable currency provisions and auto content rules she says are too weak to prevent benefits to non-TPP countries like China.
But Clinton also has set general criteria for trade agreements that match the Obama administration’s arguments for the TPP pact. “I will say ‘no’ to new trade agreements unless they create American jobs, raise wages and improve our national security,” Clinton reiterated this week in response to a questionnaire from the Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition. Read the rest of Doug’s story.
