OBAMA Loses KRUGMAN On TPP: "As I see it, the big problem here is one of trust." [View all]

[kpete]

Trade and Trust
MAY 22, 2015

Paul Krugman


"As I see it, the big problem here is one of trust.

International economic agreements are, inevitably, complex, and you don’t want to find out at the last minute — just before an up-or-down, all-or-nothing vote — that a lot of bad stuff has been incorporated into the text. So you want reassurance that the people negotiating the deal are listening to valid concerns, that they are serving the national interest rather than the interests of well-connected corporations."

Instead of addressing real concerns, however, the Obama administration has been dismissive, trying to portray skeptics as uninformed hacks who don’t understand the virtues of trade. But they’re not: the skeptics have on balance been more right than wrong about issues like dispute settlement, and the only really hackish economics I’ve seen in this debate is coming from supporters of the trade pact.

It’s really disappointing and disheartening to see this kind of thing from a White House that has, as I said, been quite forthright on other issues. And the fact that the administration evidently doesn’t feel that it can make an honest case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership suggests that this isn’t a deal we should support.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/opinion/paul-krugman-trade-and-trust.html?_r=0
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/22/1386858/-President-Obama-has-lost-Paul-Krugman-on-TPP