US Official Defends TPP: Either We Lead the World or China Does

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Thursday said the U.S. needs to consolidate its global position by ratifying and implementing the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership or China will take over as the leader of global trade.

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Speaking in Lima, Peru, Froman echoed President Barack Obama’s wish to have the TPP passed this year. “At the end of the day, I don't think Congress wants to be responsible for handing the keys to the castle to China,” Froman said. "We're one vote away from either cementing our leadership in this region and in the global trading system or ceding it to China."

The TPP deal covers 12 countries including Mexico, Japan, Australia, Chile and Peru. It has been a particularly controversial issue in the U.S. election, and widely condemned for privileging corporate profits over public interests.

The secrecy around the deal and the negotiating process, which gave access to large corporations but largely locked out civil society, has been criticized as an attack on democracy.

Cited as history’s biggest trade deal, encompassing around 40 percent of the world’s economy, the deal will see that corporations have the power sue government for potential profit losses if their products are banned from a market in a country.

Critics have argued this will lower working conditions as well as health, product and environmental standards affording corporations too much power and increasing inequality in the name of economic competitiveness.

The U.S. Trade Commission in May even released a report that claimed the TPP would have only small positive effects for the U.S. economy, with many sectors actually worse off.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called the TPP a “death blow for American manufacturing,” despite his position as a member of the financial elite who has directly benefited from globalization.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s position has not been as consistent, but she has also criticized the deal.