My previous post involved passing along some good news. Now, back to normal.
I’ve noted on a number of occasions that Hillary Clinton’s opposition to the Trans Pacific Pact will melt like snow in the spring once she’s safely elected, this being an example:
When Clinton announces that she won’t scupper the TPP, she’ll tell us that she modified it in some minuscule way that makes all the difference, and it is no longer objectionable. Since she hasn’t, at least to my knowledge, said exactly what has caused her to change her mind and want to scupper it, it will be easy for her to claim that a minor modification is sufficient to keep it afloat.
Signals are already being sent:
Laura Rosenberger, foreign policy adviser for the Clinton campaign, said Clinton still supports the goal of a TPP that advances US interests in the region. However, she said, the pact in its current form doesn’t meet three conditions needed for a trade deal: to create good jobs in the US, raise wages at home, and advance US national security.
Kurt Campbell, who was Clinton’s top lieutenant on East Asia at the State Department and is now advising her campaign, describes TPP as a “strategic commitment” to engage in Asia. The 12 participating nations account for about 40 per cent of global GDP, and other Asian nations are interested in joining.
Campbell said that a full-scale renegotiation would be “very difficult”, but that adjustments could make it more politically palatable in the US[.]
“There are always opportunities to adjust on the margins and figure out how to ensure that we’ve got an agreement which legislators can sell back home,” Campbell told the Truman Centre think tank last week, without giving specifics.
Associated Press via Down with Tyranny.
Look, I know it was so obvious that it hardly seems worth pointing out, but if I don’t pat myself on the back, who will? Besides, it may not be much, but it puts me head and shoulders above pundits like Friedman, Brooks, and Kristol, to name just a few, who have never been known to be right.
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