News Content

Protectionist mood grips US Congress making trade deals a 'heavy lift'

WITH protectionism influencing the US 2016 election campaign, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership is in trouble in Congress as doubts grow about the prospects of the European trade pact as well.

Lawmakers from both parties are taking lessons from the campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, which have harnessed a wave of discontent on job losses by linking them to free-trade deals, reports Bloomberg.

Even presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, nominally in favour or trade, has stepped up criticism of the pacts.

While past presidential candidates have softened their stance on trade after winning elections, the resonance of the anti-free trade attacks among voters in the primaries may create a more decisive shift. Opponents of these deals are already sensing new openings.

"The gravity has shifted," said Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who favours reopening trade deals.

The success of Mr Trump and Mr Sanders in Rust Belt states and elsewhere will make it even harder, if not impossible, for Congress to back TPP, even in a lame-duck session after the election.

Lawmakers say it could also hamper a looming agreement between the US and the European Union if it looks like the next president would change course.

"It's a very heavy lift at this point," said Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, a long-time free-trade advocate, noting that all three remaining presidential contenders have expressed reservations about the TPP.