Democrats and Republicans Poised to Clash on Trade at Conventions
Democrats and Republicans Poised to Clash on Trade at Conventions
EMILY CADEI
Newsweek
The bipartisan consensus forged in the '90s that foreign trade is good for America is quickly vanishing. The fiery populism that has fueled the 2016 presidential campaign has elevated candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who are blaming free trade deals for the country’s economic malaise. This has pushed presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the same direction, though she remains more equivocal about specific deals like NAFTA and the yet-to-be approved Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement between 12 countries in Asia and the Americas. Clinton supported the TPP as secretary of state, but now opposes it “in its current form.”
Their divergent opinions put the likely presidential nominees at odds with prominent voices in their own parties back in Washington—most notably President Barack Obama on the Democratic side, and a majority of Republican members of Congress—who continue to argue the merits of free trade, if it’s done correctly. This trade policy discord is also setting up another clash, as Republicans and Democrats set about writing their 2016 platforms, which will then face a vote from party delegates at the national conventions in July.
While Sanders has no mathematical chance of winning the Democratic nomination, the Vermont senator is keeping his insurgent campaign alive with the express purpose of influencing his party’s platform. Earlier this week, Sanders told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he was pleased with the progress being made on Democrats’ platform draft, but added, “there is some language that is still lacking.” Specifically, Sanders wants the party to make clear that it opposes voting on the TPP, in 2016 or in the future, warning that, like past free trade deals, it will boost big business while destroying good paying jobs and the American manufacturing sector. “I was really quite surprised to see that Secretary Clinton's delegates rejected our proposal to kill the TPP, despite the fact that she has indicated she does not want to see it get onto the floor,” he told Mitchell.
One member of the drafting committee, who agreed to speak only on background, said it’s not Clinton, but the White House, that has strongly opposed that language. Enacting the TPP has been at the top of the president's second term agenda. “The president thinks for at least another six months, he is not only president, he still is the leader of the party. And he considers this…a priority,” the member explained. According to a summary of the platform draft, it “strengthens the language on trade by pointing out that trade deals should not boost corporate profits while failing to protect worker’s rights, labor standards, the environment and public health.” The draft committee member says they sought to find middle ground by calling for more worker-friendly trade deals, but not explicitly condemning the TPP, because, “the least you could do is defer to the president’s wishes on this, and not slap him in the face.” Sanders’s supporters on the drafting committee, however, believe “they’re leading a revolution, they’ll slap anybody in the face.”
One thing that is becoming very clear is that there's an emerging bipartisan consensus in the electorate against the
failed neoliberal policies of the past. However, we're still stuck with the bipartisan consensus for these polices in Washington.
The nation has moved on. The question isn't how we should use TPP to shape free trade, but which party will offer a vision to shape the post-neoliberal future. If the Democratic party does not offer a vision, the GOP may very will do so, and we're not going to like their version at all.
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