[CTC] Hillary Clinton Says She Didn't Work on Trans-Pacific Partnership

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Two articles below...

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-30/courting-unions-clinton-says-she-didn-t-work-on-trans-pacific-partnership <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-30/courting-unions-clinton-says-she-didn-t-work-on-trans-pacific-partnership>
 
Courting Unions, Hillary Clinton Says She Didn't Work on Trans-Pacific Partnership
The former secretary of state seems to be walking a careful semantic line.
 
Bloomberg
By Josh Eidelson
July 30, 2015 at 7:06pm
 
Hillary Clinton appeared to take another step away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, telling reporters that she didn’t work on the controversial trade deal while serving as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

The Democratic presidential front-runner, who advocated for a multi-lateral Asia trade agreement as a member of Obama's administration but has pointedly refused to endorse the results as a candidate to succeed her old boss, walked a careful semantic line following a private meeting with the AFL-CIO executive council. Many of the group's members vehemently oppose the proposed trade deal.

“I did not work on TPP,” Clinton said. “That was the responsibility of the United States Trade Representative.” She added: “I never had any direct responsibility for the negotiations at all.”

Clinton so far has refused to say whether she will support or oppose the trade deal. Obama hails it as a jobs creator but many other Democrats, including Clinton's chief challenger for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, decry it as a threat to American workers and their wages.

As America's chief diplomat, Clinton said Thursday, “I advocated for a multi-national agreement that would quote 'be the gold standard.'”

That appeared to be a reference to a 2012 speech in Australia, when the then-secretary of statesaid that “we need to keep upping our game both bilaterally and with partners across the region through agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership…This TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field.”

But when a reporter on Thursday tried to pin Clinton down about whether she was endorsing the TPP at the time, she answered, “No, no, no,” and added: “I never had any direct responsibility for the negotiations at all.”

While Clinton herself would not have been personally engaged in the nitty-gritty of hammering out the TPP, the State Department is represented at the table when trade deals are negotiated. Her downplaying of her role appears to contradict the view of at least one of her peers. Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, last month told Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin that Clinton “participated in everything we did in the first term in a meaningful way,” and “was instrumental in formulating and implementing the re-balance to Asia, of which the Trans-Pacific partnership is a part.”

Clinton's latest comments followed a closed-door session AFL-CIO's executive council. One of five presidential candidates who met individually with the council, Clinton said TPP came up several times during her meeting. Outside, she repeated what are now well-rehearsed arguments on what it would take to win her backing for the deal:

“There are three tests that I want to see met: does this protect American workers, does it raise wages and increase economic opportunity and is it in our national security interests,” Clinton told reporters. She said she was hearing that “there have been some changes in a direction that I personally might approve, but I don’t know if there have been enough changes and I won’t know until I actually see what’s been negotiated.” Two people who were in the executive council’s meeting with Clinton told Bloomberg that her public comments echoed what she’d just told the union leaders.

The TPP, which critics say would drive down wages and health and safety standards,  has become an awkward issue for Clinton as she courts unions and progressives. This month Larry Cohen, who just retired after a decade heading the Communications Workers of America,announced that candidate Clinton’s lack of leadership on trade had spurred him to endorse and volunteer for Bernie Sanders. “She’s going to have that responsibility the rest of her life, that she didn’t do anything, and watched fast track go through,” Cohen told Bloomberg Monday. “Why would you expect if she’s elected that it would be any better? It would be worse, because she’s in campaign mode now.”

Other union leaders were  satisfied with Clinton's trade talk. “I did not find her to be uncertain or elusive,” International Association of Fire Fighters President Harold Schaitberger told Bloomberg Thursday. “I thought she was pretty thoughtful. She wasn’t as muscular as some were, but she made it clear her view of the issue.” 



http://www.ibtimes.com/cables-show-hillary-clintons-state-department-deeply-involved-trans-pacific-2032948

Cables Show Hillary Clinton's State Department Deeply Involved in Trans-Pacific Partnership
By  David Sirota <http://www.ibtimes.com/reporters/david-sirota>  @davidsirota <http://www.twitter.com/davidsirota>  d.sirota at ibtimes.com <mailto:d.sirota at ibtimes.com>  on July 31 2015 9:30 AM EDT

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday attempted to distance herself from the controversial 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. During her tenure as Secretary of State, Clinton publicly promoted the pact 45 separate times <http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/politics/45-times-secretary-clinton-pushed-the-trade-bill-she-now-opposes/> -- but with her Democratic presidential rivals making opposition to the deal a centerpiece of their campaigns, Clinton now asserts she was never involved in the initiative.

"I did not work on TPP," she said <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-30/courting-unions-clinton-says-she-didn-t-work-on-trans-pacific-partnership> after a meeting with leaders of labor unions who oppose the pact. "I advocated for a multinational trade agreement that would 'be the gold standard.' But that was the responsibility of the United States Trade Representative."

But State Department cables reviewed by International Business Times show that her agency -- including her top aides -- were in fact deeply involved in the diplomatic deliberations over the trade deal. The cables, which were among a trove of documents disclosed by the website WikiLeaks, also show that the Clinton-run State Department advised the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on how to negotiate the deal with foreign government officials.

In recent months, labor, environmental <http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership>, public health <http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership> and consumer advocacy <http://consumersunion.org/research/letter-to-us-trade-representative-re-pharmaceutical-and-ip-issues/> groups have campaigned against the TPP, saying the pact is a stealth attempt by corporations to tilt the rules of international commerce in their favor. They have specifically criticized provisions in the deal -- which are secret but have periodically leaked -- that they say would empower corporations to use international tribunals <http://www.ibtimes.com/trade-pact-how-trans-pacific-partnership-gives-corporations-special-legal-rights-1975817> to attempt to overturn public interest laws. The groups represent many core Democratic Party constituencies that Clinton has been courting in her White House bid, which explains why in the lead-up to the party's primary she has suddenly depicted <http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/politics/hillary-clinton-trade-issues-iowa-trip/> herself as a critic of the deal. But the cables show that the Clinton-run State Department was indeed a major player in pushing the initiative.

In one September 2009 cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=09WELLINGTON275&q=pacific%20tpp>, the State Department’s embassy officials in Wellington outline the New Zealand government’s desire for the United States to involve itself in the trade pact. An embassy cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=09WELLINGTON327&q=trans-pacific-partnership> from a few months later says the U.S. ambassador further discussed the TPP with New Zealand officials. In a February 2010 cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=10WELLINGTON65&q=pacific%20tpp>, the same embassy said that Clinton’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Frankie Reed met with New Zealand trade officials and “engaged on a wide range of topics, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

The cable notes that at the meeting, New Zealand officials told Clinton’s deputy that the country “views the TPP as a platform for future trade integration in the Asia Pacific and recognizes there will a number of sensitive issues on both sides during negotiations.” The cable says they also discussed the TPP’s effect on intellectual property rights, natural resource investment, and pharmaceuticals -- all specific issues that have raised concerns from watchdog groups in the United States.

In a separate cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=10WELLINGTON3&q=pacific%20tpp>, State Department officials in New Zealand request an additional employee to specifically “allow the Economics Officer to focus on preparations for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations.”

In a September 2009 cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=09HANOI851&q=trans-pacific-partnership>, State Department officials report that Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinberg, specifically discussed the TPP with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister. 

“The Deputy Secretary acknowledged that that the U.S. was reviewing its position on TPP, adding that stronger support from Congress as a result of positive steps on issues of concern was likely needed in order to move forward on trade issues with Vietnam,” said the cable.

In a November 2009 cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=09TOKYO2715&q=trans-pacific-partnership>, the U.S. embassy in Tokyo details TPP discussions between Japanese government officials and Robert Hormats, a former Goldman Sachs executive <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/sept/129535.htm> who was then serving as Clinton’s undersecretary of state.

In a December 2009 <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=09HANOI1406&q=trans-pacific-partnership> cable, State Department officials in Hanoi report that the U.S. Ambassador “hosted a dinner on December 21 for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement country representatives.” The cable thanked the Clinton-run State Department for providing “regular updates" that “have been key to helping vus answer the many TPP-related inquiries we receive.”

In a January 2010 cable <https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=10KUALALUMPUR61&q=pacific%20tpp>, State Department embassy officials in Kuala Lampur advise Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis on strategies to negotiate the TPP with the Malaysian government.

“Highlight the priority the Administration is giving to the Trans Pacific Partnership initiative, and the role that the TPP will play in promoting economic competitiveness and trade opportunities in the region,” Clinton’s State Department officials advised. “Encourage Malaysia, when it's ready, to engage TPP members about process and requirements for joining.”

The involvement of the Clinton-led State Department in the TPP is not altogether surprising: in a June, CBS News <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-tries-to-downplay-clinton-snub-on-trade/> reported that “a senior administration official told CBS News Correspondent Julianna Goldman that Clinton was one of the biggest backers of TPP.” In a Bloomberg News <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-30/courting-unions-clinton-says-she-didn-t-work-on-trans-pacific-partnership> interview that same month, President Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice disputed the idea that Clinton was not involved in the TPP.

“She was integrally involved in all of the major initiatives of the first term of the administration,” said Rice, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations when Clinton was Secretary of State. “She was instrumental in formulating and implementing the rebalance to Asia, of which the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a part.”
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