US President Barack Obama’s administration has suspended its efforts to win congressional approval for his Asian free-trade deal before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office, saying on Friday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TTP) fate was up to Trump and Republican lawmakers.
Administration officials also said Obama would next week try to explain the situation to leaders of the 11 other countries in the pact when he attends a regional summit in Peru.
Obama’s Cabinet secretaries and the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) had been lobbying lawmakers for months to pass the 12-country TPP deal in the post-election, lame-duck session of US Congress.
However, Trump’s stunning election victory that sends him to the White House in January and retains Republican majorities in Congress has stymied those plans.
“We have worked closely with Congress to resolve outstanding issues and are ready to move forward, but this is a legislative process and it’s up to congressional leaders as to whether and when this moves forward,” USTR spokesman Matt McAlvanah said in a statement.
On Wednesday, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would not take up the TPP in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration and said its fate was now up to Trump.
US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan had earlier said he would not proceed with a lame-duck vote.
Trump made his opposition to the TPP a centerpiece of his campaign, calling it a “disaster” and “a rape of our country” that would send more jobs overseas.
His message opposing free trade and pledges to stem the tide of imported goods from China and Mexico won him massive support among blue-collar workers in the industrial states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, helping to swing the election his way.
Trump has said he will scrap the TPP, renegotiate the 22-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and adopt a much tougher trade stance with China.
The TPP agreement, negotiated for more than five years and signed in October last year, was aimed at reducing trade barriers erected by some of the fastest growing economies in Asia and boosting ties with US allies in the region in the face of China’s rising influence.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Wally Adeyemo on Friday told reporters that Obama will tell TPP member countries at the APEC summit that the US will remain engaged in Asia, and that it recognizes the benefits of trade and such deals still make sense.
“In terms of the TPP agreement itself, McConnell has spoken to that and it’s something that he’s going to work with the president-elect to figure out where they go in terms of trade agreements in the future, but we continue to think that these types of deals make sense, simply because countries like China are not going to stop working on regional agreements,” Adeyamo said.
China, leading talks on a deal seen as an alternative to the TPP — the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership — this week said that the Pacific Rim area needs a free-trade deal as soon as possible and that it would seek support for one during the APEC summit.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
RSS