Obama’s TPP may reshape world trade

(Photo: Martin Hunter – AP)

The formal signing last week of the world’s biggest trade and investment agreement — the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP — went almost unnoticed in most countries, but it could soon start to change the world’s economic and political maps.

One of the reasons why the 12-country trade agreement’s Thursday signing ceremony in New Zealand drew little world attention was that neither President Barack Obama nor other leaders of participating countries attended the event, and chose to send their trade ministers instead.

Obama did not want to draw much attention to the TPP in an election year, when his Democratic Party’s presidential hopefuls — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — are saying they oppose the free trade deal.

But that’s standard procedure by Democratic presidential hopefuls, who don’t want to antagonize anti-free trade union supporters in election years. Both Obama and former President Bill Clinton opposed or questioned free trade deals when they were running for president, only to embrace them once they took office. Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be much different.

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