Monday, June 15, 2015

Washington (CNN)Hillary Clinton isn't helping President Barack Obama salvage a free trade agenda that congressional Democrats are on the verge of wrecking.
But she's also not taking a position on the trade promotion authority bill, which is crucial to determining whether the linchpin of Obama's trade effort -- the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership -- ever gets done.
The Democratic frontrunner -- purposefully or not -- conflated the two issues in her most extensive remarks yet on trade during a Sunday rally in Des Moines, Iowa. She also implied she'd drive a harder bargain on both than Obama has.
"No president would be a tougher negotiator on behalf of American workers, either with our trade partners or Republicans on Capitol Hill, than I would be," Clinton said.
Here's why the TPP is such a big deal
Here's why the TPP is such a big deal 03:24
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She cited House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by name twice. However, Clinton didn't weigh in at all on the bill the California Democrat maneuvered to block last week: so-called "trade promotion authority."
It's a measure that guarantees trade deals straight up-or-down votes without amendments -- key, negotiators say, to getting foreign leaders to take the political risks of making their best offers and signing off on a final agreement.
    That bill -- not the Trans-Pacific Partnership itself -- is what pitted Pelosi against Obama last week.
    And if the party succeeds in killing trade promotion authority, Democrats would close the door on the Pacific deal before it's even finalized.
    The intra-party resistance to Obama's trade efforts was laid bare on Friday when Pelosi-led congressional Democrats stunned the White House and turned against a bill they typically support, which aids displaced workers, because rejecting that bill had the procedural effect of also thwarting Republicans' push to grant Obama trade promotion authority.
    Clinton said that Democratic opposition should strengthen the Obama administration's hand in talks with the other countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, including Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico.
    "There are some specifics in there that could and should be changed. So I am hoping that's what happens now -- let's take the lemons and turn it into lemonade," Clinton said.
    But unless Congress grants Obama trade promotion authority, even the most optimistic free trade advocates admit, the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations have no path forward.
    Brendan Buck, spokesman for the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee, tweeted: "Either Clinton isn't familiar with the very basics of [trade promotion authority] debate or she is being incredibly disingenuous."