Speaking to the Wall Street Journal this afternoon, John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said that she opposes a congressional vote on a pending Asian free-trade agreement later this year, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He also stated that Clinton will will toss out the current agreement altogether.if she becomes President, rather than renegotiate it. She wants to start completely afresh.
“We need a new approach to trade,” he said. “We’re not about renegotiation. We’re not kind of interested in that. We’re interested in a new approach.”
Clinton is not going to pivot back to "tweaking” TPP, as many have feared she might do after the nomination. Podesta says that,as President, she will not seek to merely renegotiate particular aspects of the agreement while keeping the overall structure.
Clinton and Kaine are both committed to getting rid of TPP, period.
“They’re against it before the election and against it after the election,” [Podesta] said at a lunch sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. He said he met with House Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the pact, on Monday and reiterated that position. “So they know, they well know what our position is.”
There’s no wiggle-room in this statement. That Podesta chose a meeting with the Wall Street Journal is proof that Clinton is giving the U S business community notice. Rejection of TPP was one of the last positions that differentiated the Sanders and the Clinton campaigns. This very public rejection of this trade deal may be part of the reason that Sanders took the very unifying position of calling for Clinton’s nomination by acclamation.