U.S. President Barack Obama continued to promote the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as a major economic opportunity during a meeting with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday despite widespread opposition to the controversial trade pact, particularly within the Democratic Party.
Obama faces the challenge of getting the TPP through Congress, where it faces resistance from both sides of the political spectrum. The president has been working to push the 12-country transnational trade deal through before the end of his term in January.
"We stand together for a regional order where every nation large and small plays and trades by the same rules," Obama said during his visit with Prime Minister Lee in Washington Tuesday.
The TPP has come to be seen as a cornerstone in Obama’s so-called pivot to Asia.
His Singapore counterpart argued that the trade deal could offer economic opportunities on both sides of the Pacific. "Not only will the TPP benefit American workers and businesses, it will send a clear signal and a vital signal that America will continue to lead in the Asia Pacific and enhance the partnerships that link our destinies together," Hsien Loong said.
Obama’s cheerleading for the TPP comes after the public opinion on the deal sparked significant debate during the Democratic and Republican primaries and forced a shift in political positions on free trade.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has rejected the TPP. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton also switched her position during the campaign and came out against the deal due to pressure from Vermont Senator and upstart left-wing presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and his groundswell of support during the primaries.
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But despite Clinton’s newfound anti-TPP rhetoric, the Democratic party platform failed to disavow the controversial agreement, disappointing Sanders supporters and many labor and social movements against the deal. Clinton surrogates in the platform committee voted down attempts by the Sanders camp to lock in an outright rejection of the deal. Instead the platform criticizes the TPP, but without going as far as to commit to a vote against it.
Critics argue that the TPP will undermine worker rights, raise drug prices, threaten food security, and lock in a future of dirt energy, fossil fuels, and climate crisis.
Other items on the agenda during the visit included conflicts in the South China Sea and China’s claims to resource-rich waters in which Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also have claims.
Obama has promoted the TPP — which includes Japan,Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Brunei — as another mechanism to check China’s power of influence in the region.