Kingsley Kanayo | Lagos
US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday withdrew her support for a key international trade deal backed by the Obama administration.
Clinton came out against the Trans Pacific Partnership in an interview with PBS Wednesday, breaking with President Barack Obama and his administration, which has forcefully promoted the deal.
“As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it,” Clinton told PBS. “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set.”
The former secretary of state cited the “high bar” she set earlier in the year as the reason she was going against the deal.
“I have said from the very beginning that we had to have a trade agreement that would create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security and I still believe that is the high bar we have to meet” Clinton said, adding later, “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set.”
As secretary of state, Clinton actively advocated for the TPP. In fact, she did so 45 times between 2010 and 2013.
In July, Clinton told CNN that she never worked directly on the deal.
“I did not work on TPP,” Clinton said Thursday. “I advocated for a multi-national trade agreement that would ‘be the gold standard.’ But that was the responsibility of the United States trade representative.”
Clinton’s closest competitor for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has previously denounced the deal. Her stance on the agreement comes after she publicly opposed the Keystone XL pipeline after a long period of offering little detail on the policy.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2015 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
