Hillary
Clinton gets tough on trade, creating dilemma for Obama
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[June 16, 2015]
By Krista Hughes, Richard Cowan and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON/CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) -
Hillary Clinton complicated President Barack Obama's quest for
fast-track authority on his Pacific Rim trade pact on Monday by throwing
her support behind fellow Democrats who revolted against the measure
last week, while the U.S. Congress further delayed action on related
legislation.
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Clinton's criticism on the presidential campaign trail further
dimmed hopes of reviving the White House's drive for the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Congress, a key piece of
legislation in Obama's second term.
“I believe that one of the ways the president could get fast-track
authority is to deal with the legitimate concerns of those Democrats
who are potential ‘yes’ voters to see what’s in the negotiation or
even what’s in the existing framework agreement that is being
drafted, could be modified or changed,” Clinton, the Democratic
presidential front-runner, said on Monday in Concord, New Hampshire.
Republicans who control Congress moved late on Monday to postpone a
House vote that had been expected on Tuesday, setting a much later
deadline of July 30 for future action.
"We remain committed to getting (fast-track) done, and this will
give the president more time to communicate the consequences of not
moving forward with his party," said Kevin Smith, spokesman for
Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.
Obama's own Democrats on Friday derailed his push for authority to
speed trade deals through Congress with a yes-or-no vote, casting
doubt on the trade agreement central to the administration's pivot
to Asia.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jun/16/images/ads/current/LPL_small%201.gif) Edward Alden, a trade-policy expert with the Council on Foreign
Relations, said any late tweaking of the deal to appease Democrats
could cost the trade pact broad support elsewhere.
“In doing what Secretary Clinton is recommending here, the
administration could well lose the support they have on the
Republican side,” he said.
Alden doubted the deal could be altered enough to win the support of
organized labor, which mounted a huge campaign against the pact.
“There’s no combination that the administration could really offer
to get the AFL-CIO to support the deal,” he said.
The House vote that had been scheduled for Tuesday was for a worker
aid provision that is part of the fast-track trade legislation. The
House Rules Committee was expected to set a new deadline of July 30
for the vote.
Since her campaign entered a more expansive phase with her Saturday
address in New York City, Clinton has made it clearer that she is
actively courting the left wing of the Democratic Party, which fears
the trade deal would hurt American workers.
The TPP is fiercely opposed not only by labor but by environmental
groups and liberal activists who want improved human rights in Asia.
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Despite her recent remarks, Clinton has attempted to tread
cautiously on TPP, given the support for the pact by the White House
and the U.S. business community.
Time is running out to secure fast-track authority, which restricts
lawmakers to a yes-or-no vote on trade deals, and wrap up the TPP
pact so it can pass Congress this year, before 2016 presidential
elections begin to dominate the political and policy agenda.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration was
working to "help Democrats and Republicans on the Hill figure this
out," but was not pushing any particular legislative solution.
Obama put in a phone call to Boehner on Monday, Earnest said. The
president also spent the weekend playing golf, hosting a private
concert with singer Prince and attending a dance recital featuring
one of his daughters.
“The president continues to be confident that we will navigate this
particular procedural snafu and move this across the finish line,”
Earnest said.
Many Asia leaders have said it is vital that the United States be
able to pass the trade pact if America wants to stay engaged and be
taken seriously by the Asia Pacific region.
"Trade is strategy and you’re either in or out," Singapore's foreign
minister, K. Shanmugam, said on Monday. "It’s very, very serious and
your credibility - let’s be frank about it - the president wants it,
everybody knows this is important and you can't get it done? How
credible are you going to be?"
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards, Amanda Becker and Roberta
Rampton; Writing by Emily Stephenson and Krista Hughes; Editing by
Kevin Drawbaugh and Eric Beech)
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