Obama notifies Congress of intention to sign TPP agreement

Global Times

US President Barack Obama on Thursday notified Congress that he intended to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), hours after the long-awaited text of the trade deal was released.

The release of the text came exactly one month after trade ministers of the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries reached an agreement on the TPP in Atlanta, the US state of Georgia.  

That would kick off a 90-day congressional review period that must elapse before the president formally signs the trade agreement, according to the trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation passed earlier this year.

In a letter sent to the Congress, Obama said he was pleased to notify lawmakers of his intention to enter into the TPP agreement.

The TPP will generate export opportunities, help create jobs in the United States, and help American consumers save money while offering them more choices, Obama said in the letter.

While the Obama administration has touted the Pacific trade deal as a means to create jobs and write the rules of international trade, labor unions, environmental groups, consumer and heath care organizations across the country have come out against it out of various concerns.

“From what we have reviewed so far, we are deeply disappointed that our policy recommendations and those of our trade reform allies in the environmental, consumer, public heath, global development and business sectors were largely ignored,” powerful union AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday.

“The hardworking families of the AFL-CIO will join with our allies to defeat the TPP,” he said in a statement.

The newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, reserved judgment, citing that he hadn’t read the text of the agreement.

“I don’t know the answer to what my position is on a trade agreement I have not even yet read, because we just got it this morning,” Ryan said Thursday at a press briefing.

“We have a lot of work to do to review this agreement. And we do not rubber-stamp anything around here, let alone trade agreements,” he said.

Before the release of the text, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin said, “The upcoming 90-day period was established to facilitate an intensive and informed debate over the merits of TPP as negotiated, as well as the necessity for any modifications to the agreement, before the agreement is signed.”

“We are organizing a series of in-depth public hearings to assess the merits of the proposed agreement, zeroing in on those issues that are of particular importance or concern to us and our fellow Democratic colleagues,” Levin said in a statement on Wednesday.

The earliest date for a final TPP vote in US Congress would be in March 2016 when US presidential election heats up, according to trade experts.

It’s unclear whether the Obama administration could get enough votes to pass the controversial trade deal.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said last month that she’s “not in favor of” the TPP deal, noting that she doesn’t believe the deal will meet her “high bar” for creating good American jobs, raising wages and advancing national security.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/951183.shtml

11 thoughts on “Obama notifies Congress of intention to sign TPP agreement

  1. “The TPP will generate export opportunities, help create jobs in the United States, and help American consumers save money while offering them more choices, Obama said in the letter.”

    Help create jobs IN the US? Really how and for who? The Illegal immigrants? Because it sure as hell won’t be for the American people.

    My goodness, why hasn’t someone hung this treasonous piece of shit. How far must one go before people wake up and do something?

  2. The TPP is necessary in order to continue fulfilling UN’s agenda 2030; it’s a done deal no matter who says what or who does what, it will be done.

    Like NAFTA, this, too, will further degrade our country – only MUCH worse than NAFTA.

    I don’t know how much more it’s going to take before we hit rock bottom and those one the fence finally wake up. I suspect that time has passed too. It’s going to be up to us few.

  3. A lot can happen in 90 days, and I’m noticing that some of the most apathetic and brainwashed idiots are beginning to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

    Between the crashing economy (which people are starting to feel) , the brutal pigs (who people are starting to fear), the wetback invasion, and Hillary’s ugly mug, people are at the end of their rope.

    I’m not too worried about this TPP nonsense, and in fact, it might provide the impetus people need to pry themselves away from the TV and start shooting. It looks like a horror, but it may actually help our cause by being the final straw for a lot of people.

    1. People in the crime gang we know as “government” are always going to do what their Zionist masters tell them, so of course this will be ratified, after a little false opposition, of course, but Americans will become impoverished with or without this stupid treaty.

      It’s only another step in their process of creating their Jew World Order, but it may benefit us by recruiting a lot of people for our side.

      Didn’t millions of Americans first become angry over NAFTA? Well they’re still around, and millions more will join them.

  4. TPP gives away US sovereignty, not merely via trade. Powers are granted to outside sources in the name of bs like “world interest”.

    TPP is a disaster for US liberty.

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