Atlantic Council Board Director Paula Stern writes for The Diplomat on the recently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the hurdles the trade agreement faces in securing congressional approval:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been criticized for not supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiated by the Obama Administration. As Secretary of State, she hoped the TPP would be negotiated as a high-standard trade agreement. But she concluded that unfortunately, the hopes she had were not met in the final terms of the agreement and therefore she cannot support the agreement. The critics’ rap was that she was changing positions for political reasons.
So is there a contradiction between the position Clinton took as secretary of State and the one she is taking now? I don’t think so. Hillary has always set what she has called a very high bar for this agreement, and she does not think the agreement gets over that bar. She has consistently said that any trade agreement must meet three criteria for her to support it – creating more good jobs for American workers, raising wages, and advancing our national security.