Obama sells trade deal in Asia while opposition mounts at home

While President Obama was promoting his stalled free-trade deal in southeast Asia Tuesday, two major consumer groups announced their opposition to the agreement and urged Congress to reject it.

Speaking to an audience in Vientiane, Laos, Mr. Obama said the Trans-Pacific Partnership is “a core pillar of America’s rebalance to the Asia Pacific.”

“The trade and the growth it supports will reinforce America’s security alliances and regional partnerships,” Mr. Obama said. “Failure to move ahead with TPP would not just have economic consequences, but would call into question America’s leadership in this vital region.”

But Mr. Obama’s biggest hurdles to completing the 12-nation deal are back home in the U.S., where the agreement suffered another setback when Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America urged the House and Senate to defeat the pact.

“While we recognize the benefits that can flow to consumers from international commerce, we are concerned that the TPP as currently negotiated would unduly risk undermining important safety, health, and other interests of consumers,” the consumer groups told Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, has said he won’t allow TPP to be considered for a vote even in the lame-duck session of Congress after the November elections. Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton also don’t support the agreement.

“I am going to say no to unfair trade deals, like the TPP,” Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic nominee, said at a campaign rally on Labor Day.

The consumer groups raised several objections to the trade deal, including its “investor-state dispute settlement” procedure, which they said will allow businesses to bypass regulatory agencies and courts in favor of seeking compensation through “private arbitration tribunals.”

“We have recently seen how a World Trade Organization case brought by Mexico and Canada against U.S. Country of Origin labeling requirements — requirements supported by more than 90 percent of American consumers, passed three times by Congress, and upheld by the U.S.

Courts — resulted in severe penalties that would be imposed on the United States unless those requirements were eliminated,” the groups said. “We are concerned that the TPP will lead to more industry-driven challenges to consumer protections, and that ISDS will provide an open avenue for doing so.”

Mr. Obama said he won’t give up on the TPP, which he considers the most important economic goal of his second term.

“As difficult as the politics are back home, I will continue to push hard on the U.S. Congress to approve TPP before I leave office, because I think it is important for this entire region and it is important for the United States,” he said.

The president told his audience in Laos that the U.S. “is more deeply engaged across the Asia Pacific than we have been in decades.”

“Our position is stronger. And we’ve sent a clear message that, as a Pacific nation, we’re here to stay,” Mr. Obama said. “In good times and bad, you can count on the United States of America.”