Sessions: Congress Won't Approve TPP During Lame Duck
Congress will not approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of the Obama Presidency, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, and other attendees of a March 18 seminar hosted by the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum. Sessions said U.S. job and wage prospects under TPP are “worrying” Americans, making it more difficult to pass the agreement, and added that Brunei and Vietnam shouldn’t get the same vote proportion as the U.S. under the pact.
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Froman defended TPP, saying the “clear conclusion” by independent analysts is that it’ll benefit the U.S. economy, add about 0.5 percent to U.S. GDP and boost exports and “high-paying, export-related jobs.” He said he believes that TPP is the first trade agreement that U.S. domestic textile manufacturers, apparel importers, U.S. footwear producers, and U.S. footwear importers all support. He also took aim at a Tufts study (see 1602250063 and 1601290018) that projected a decline in U.S. exports and U.S. job growth after TPP entry into force. “The Tufts model has been debunked by all the economists that have said that model is not intended to measure trade, and so I think that will save you lots of analysis of that,” Froman told Sessions. The Tufts study employs the United Nations “Global Policy Model,” designed to investigate regional and global policies and trends related to certain issues through application of historical data. Tufts economists reiterated their findings on TPP in a March 20 blog post (here).