Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance

[RiverLover]

72. Holy Crap%*!@ Just read full article linked...This started out as a George W Bush deal.

Yet Democrats continue to criticize the TPP as little more than a repackaging of previous trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), that failed to include enforceable standards on labor conditions and the environment and controls to halt foreign currency ma­nipu­la­tion.

In airing their concerns, opponents have reminded Obama of his 2008 campaign, when he spoke skeptically about NAFTA and pledged to renegotiate it once he took office.

“I’m hoping he remembers that campaign and being in Ohio and speaking directly to folks who lost their job because of a trade agreement he was campaigning to renegotiate at that point,” said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who opposes the TPP.

In the past several weeks, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) held a strategy session with House Democrats about ways to slow the deal; Warren sent a three-page letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman detailing concerns over provisions she said could undermine financial regulations; and the AFL-CIO launched an anti-TPP advertising campaign in Metro stations in the Washington area.

In response, the Obama administration has launched a “whole of government” campaign to build support in both parties on Capitol Hill. In addition to Froman, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez have been involved in discussions with lawmakers.

In a recent address to the Business Roundtable, Obama acknowledged an uphill battle to convince his base that liberalizing trade policy and increasing global competition would not exacerbate wage stagnation after a long period of financial unease among middle-class Americans.

“There’s no doubt that some manufacturing moved offshore in the wake of China entering the [World Trade Organization] and as a consequence of NAFTA,” Obama said. “Now, more of those jobs were lost because of automation and capital investment, but there’s a narrative there that makes for some tough politics.”

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The roots of the TPP stretch back to the George W. Bush administration, which first engaged in talks with a far smaller group of Pacific nations. When Obama took office, he put the effort on hold while his administration, in consultation with outside experts, examined trade issues.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-hopes-to-enlist-gop-in-push-for-trade-pact-despite-democratic-resistance/2014/12/26/81236a34-8600-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html?hpid=z1

Would love to know who these "outside experts" were....