Tim Kaine vice presidential campaign, 2016/Trans-Pacific Partnership
This page was current as of the 2016 election.
President Barack Obama's push to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in 2016 was resisted by the 2016 presidential candidates in both major parties. Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) opposed the deal, arguing that it would hurt American workers. Green Party candidate Jill Stein (G) also opposed the deal for similar reasons. Gary Johnson (L) was the only candidate in the race who said he would sign the TPP because it would "advance free trade."[1]
Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman countered the anti-TPP sentiment on the campaign trail, arguing that the 12-nation trade deal would create new jobs by opening up foreign markets for exporting goods and set minimum standards for working conditions in the 11 other nations, leveling the playing field in the global market. They argued that the deal would seek to promote trade and strengthen the relationships between the 12 nations by reducing and eliminating tariffs, fostering competition, and creating greater opportunities for businesses. Froman and Obama also said that the countries involved had agreed to promote environmental protection practices and enforce laws protecting workers, in order to reassure those who opposed the deal due to environmental and human rights concerns.[2][3]
In a split from Obama, former 2016 presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D) rallied his supporters to urge the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to include language in their platform rejecting the TPP, but his efforts were unsuccessful. CNN reporter Eric Bradner wrote, "By keeping specific opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership out of the platform, Democrats avoided embarrassing President Barack Obama."[4] Although the DNC's decision was a disappointment to Sanders, he, along with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), continued to spearhead efforts in the Senate to get their colleagues to vote against Obama's trade deal.
The DNC's decision also opened up "Clinton and other Democrats to questions about whether their opposition to the Pacific Rim pact is sincere," according to Bradner. Clinton, who supported the trade deal as secretary of state, but changed her mind after she read the final deal, faced scrutiny about how she would handle the trade deal if she were elected, and much of that criticism came from Trump.[4]
Trump, who broke "with decades of Republican orthodoxy" in his opposition to the TPP, repeatedly tied Clinton to the trade deal in an attempt to win the votes of displaced American workers. In January 2016, Trump said, "I will stop Hillary’s Obamatrade in its tracks, bringing millions of new voters into the Republican Party. We will move manufacturing jobs back to the United States and we will Make America Great Again.”[5][6]
See below what Tim Kaine and the 2016 Democratic Party Platform said about the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
| CANDIDATE SUMMARY | |
Kaine on the Trans-Pacific Partnership
- During an interview on August 7, 2016, NBC's Chuck Todd said Tim Kaine "essentially switched" his position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) when Hillary Clinton asked him to join her campaign. Kaine disagreed with Todd's assessment, saying, "I haven’t switched my position. I was a strong supporter a year ago of giving President Obama the ability to negotiate a trade deal. But I said at the time, when that deal was done and on the table, I was going to look at it very carefully. And I even expressed a very serious concern I had with how it was developed, which is that companies were given rights to enforce provisions, but the labor and environmental provisions could not be effectively enforced. That was never fixed. I've asked again and again to understand this piece of the TPP. And I've never gotten a good answer. We can't have a deal that cannot be enforced. And so, for that reason, yeah, I'm going to oppose it in the lame duck if it comes up after Election Day."[7]
- The Huffington Post reported on July 22, 2016, that after Clinton named Kaine as her running mate, "Kaine had told the former secretary of state that he would oppose President Barack Obama’s signature trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, in its current form. [An] aide said that at some point in Kaine and Clinton’s two conversations prior to the selection ― which she made Friday night, eight days after the first meeting ― he agreed with her that a trade deal had to meet certain criteria on protecting wages and national security, and that the TPP did not."[8]
| CNN, "Tim Kaine on why he opposes TPP," July 31, 2016. |
- In interviews conducted on July 11, 2016, and July 21, 2016, Kaine said he viewed upgrades to labor standards, environmental standards, and intellectual property protections that were part of the TPP as favorable, but he added that he was troubled by its dispute resolution mechanism. He said, "I am having discussions with groups around Virginia about the treaty itself. I see much in it to like. I think it's an upgrade of labor standards. I think it's an upgrade of environmental standards, I think it's an upgrade in intellectual property protections. I do see at least right now that there is one element that I do have some very significant concerns about. And that is the dispute resolution mechanism. And I've got a lot of concerns about that. But long before there would be a vote on that I'm trying to climb the learning curve on the areas where I have questions. So again, much of it I see I think as a significant improvement over the status quo. The dispute resolution mechanism I still have some significant concerns about."[9][10]
- On June 24, 2015, by a vote of 60-38, the Senate approved trade promotion authority (TPA) as part of HR 2146 - Defending Public Safety Employees' Retirement Act. Kaine was one of 13 Democrats to vote in favor of the bill. After, Senate Republican leadership honored a pledge to support trade adjustment assistance (TAA) by passing the measure as part of HR 1295 - Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 by voice vote. The House passed HR 1295 the following day, on June 25, 2015, and both TPA and TAA were signed into law on June 29, 2015.[11][12][13]
- On May 22, 2015, Kaine voted with 13 other Democratic senators to approve HR 1314, which was used as a legislative vehicle for trade legislation with the titles "Trade Act of 2015" and the "Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015." The bill passed with a vote of 62-37 and proposed giving the president trade promotion authority (TPA). TPA, also known as fast-track authority, allows the president to negotiate trade deals that cannot be amended by Congress. Congress casts a simple up or down vote on a trade agreement, and the legislation only requires a simple majority for approval. The bill also included a statement of trade priorities and provisions for trade adjustment assistance. President Obama signed the bill into law on November 2, 2015.[14][15]
- In an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, on May 16, 2015, Kaine explained his pro-trade stance and why he planned to vote for TPA, adding that his support for TPA was not a guarantee that he would vote for the TPP. He wrote, "All agree that trade, under the right conditions, benefits our economy. The question is whether we can negotiate deals that protect workers’ rights, environmental standards and intellectual property, while knocking down tariffs and other barriers that some countries erect to keep American products out. If we don’t insist upon high standards, the other dominant global trade actor, China, will be perfectly happy to compete under a low-standard regime that will further damage our economy. After much discussion with labor, agriculture and business leaders, I will support TPA because it gives the U.S. the best chance of elevating the standards for global trade in ways that will level the playing field for our workers, farmers and companies. My support for TPA is not a blind endorsement of any pending trade negotiation. Once we establish our key principles, I will make sure that the specifics of any final deal are placed before the public and fully debated to see if they meet our standards and help Virginia. We have to make sure that any deal can be enforced and that any workers negatively affected by trade have robust job retraining opportunities. I am pro-trade, but I’m pro-Virginia first."[16]
- Shortly before Congress passed TPA, Kaine said in a statement on May 14, 2015, "I refused to allow consideration of trade legislation until the Senate passed strong enforcement measures. As we prepare to take up major trade initiatives in the coming months, my biggest priority is ensuring we can negotiate enforceable deals that protect workers' rights, environmental standards and intellectual property, while eliminating barriers that some countries erect to keep American products out."[17]
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on trade | ||||||
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Recent news
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ CNN, "Gary Johnson: Trump says 'racist' things and should be disqualified from presidency," accessed July 11, 2016
- ↑ Office of the United States Trade Representative, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership," accessed February 3, 2016
- ↑ Medium.com, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Preamble," accessed February 3, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 CNN, "In platform fight, Sanders loses on trade but wins on minimum wage," accessed July 11, 2016
- ↑ Business Insider, "Donald Trump is staring down decades of Republican Party orthodoxy on a signature issue," accessed July 11, 2016
- ↑ Breitbart, "Exclusive — Donald J. Trump Makes the Case that Electing Him President Is the Only Way to Stop Obamatrade," accessed July 11, 2016
- ↑ PolitiFact, "Tim Kaine says he hasn't changed his position on Trans-Pacific Partnership (unlike Clinton)," accessed August 16, 2016
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "Hillary Clinton Names Tim Kaine As Her Running Mate," accessed August 16, 2016
- ↑ CBS News, "Tim Kaine changes course on TPP after VP nod," July 23, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Kaine praised TPP as recently as Thursday," July 22, 2016
- ↑ Senate.gov, "Roll Call for HR 2146," June 24, 2015
- ↑ The Hill, "Senate approves fast-track, sending trade bill to White House," June 24, 2015
- ↑ The Hill, "Obama signs trade bills," June 29, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "HR 1314," accessed May 25, 2015
- ↑ Senate.gov, "H.R. 1314 (Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act)," accessed May 25, 2015
- ↑ Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Kaine: Virginia is a global gateway," accessed August 16, 2016
- ↑ Daily Press, "With Kaine and Warner support, trade bill moves ahead," accessed August 16, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 23, 2016
