President Barack Obama is pushing to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal before he leaves office. But most the 2016 presidential candidates oppose it.
WORC opposes the TPP because it does not meet WORC’s Trade Bill of Rights, which calls for American trade policy to strengthen, not weaken, the health, environment, food sovereignty, working conditions, labor rights, and transparent, competitive market principles of this country and all countries.
Democrat Hillary Clinton opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership
“I think I have a pretty good idea of what we can do to meet the tests that I believe any trade agreement, especially the TPP, must meet. It needs to, number one, protect American workers. Number two – it needs to raise wages and create good jobs at home. Number three – it needs to be in our national security interests. I’ve been saying that for months… And if we don’t get it, there should be no deal.”
– Hillary Clinton, Iowa campaign speech, June 14, 2015
Republican Donald Trump opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership
“The trade deal is a disaster for many reasons… It’s a horrible deal for the United States and it should not pass. It doesn’t cover currency manipulation. If you don’t have currency manipulation as part of this transaction, you’re wasting your time because that’s the single easiest way these foreign countries take advantage of the United States.”
– Donald Trump, Breitbart News interview, May 8, 2015
Green Jill Stein opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership
“The President is also leading the bipartisan effort to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a devastating secretive trade deal known as ‘NAFTA on steroids’ because it will send jobs overseas, undermine wages at home, and roll back protections for workers, public health and the environment … We must continue to mobilize to defeat the TPP.”
– Jill Stein, Green Party response to 2016 State of the Union speech, January 12, 2016
Libertarian Gary Johnson supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership
“It is my understanding that the TPP does advance free trade. Is it a perfect document? Probably not. But based on my understanding of the document, I would be supporting it [though] in a perfect world there wouldn’t be a document like that, there would just be free trade.”
– Gary Johnson, Politico interview, June 19, 2016