Strange bedfellows of 2015: As the Obama administration pushes toward a major new trade agreement in Asia this spring, it is developing two unlikely allies: Chinese officials abroad, who are signaling that they want in, and Republicans in Congress, who appear willing to support what would be one of President Obama’s biggest successes.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is down to its final haggling. This week, negotiators from 12 countries met in New York to resolve the remaining issues, which have been narrowed from more than 2,000. The toughest matters left, ironically, are agricultural disputes with Japan and dairy and poultry disagreements with Canada.
David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column and contributes to the PostPartisan blog. U.S. negotiators hope they can close out the TPP deal by the summer and get it approved by Congress — thanks to Republican votes promised by House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Republicans like trade even more than they dislike Obama, evidently. It’s a jobs bill that doesn’t cost any money. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that the market-opening features of the TPP will boost U.S. exports by about $123 billion annually by 2025 and add 600,000 jobs.
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