{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/news-tpp-opponents-tout-deals-defeat-urge-trump-pick-ustr-favor-new", "News: TPP opponents tout deal's defeat, urge Trump to pick USTR in favor of new trade policy", "2016-11-16", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "TX", "Lloyd Doggett", "D000399", "doggett.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Inside U.S. Trade:\u00a0TPP opponents tout deal's defeat, urge Trump to pick USTR in favor of new trade policy\nBy Jenny Leonard\nPosted November 16, 2016\nTrans-Pacific Partnership opponents this week publicly declared the deal dead and claimed they had the votes to bring it down even if it had come up in the lameduck session \u2013 though they did not rule out the possibility that Presidentelect Trump could take up the agreement in the future.\nA group of lawmakers, led at a Nov. 15 rally by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT),not only touted its work on TPP but also pledged to \u201ckeep up the pressure\u201d on the new administration to take a different approach to negotiating free trade agreements.\nDeLauro \u2013 saying TPP was \u201con the ropes long before [Election Day]\u201d but adding that \u201cif it had been brought to a vote in the lameduck it would have failed\u201d \u2013 said the coalition will remain united in its effort to deliver a 21st century approach to trade policy, which she said should include enforceable currency disciplines, enforceable environmental and labor standards, clear rules of origin and appropriate trade partners selected on the basis of their records of compliance.\n\u201cTrade agreements should reflect the new era of U.S. trade policy with the input from civil society and policymakers and the elimination of fasttrack,\u201d DeLauro said. \u201cImplementing a new model will not be easy, but our next administration needs to do exactly that.\u201d\n\u201cPresidentelectTrump made strong comments about trade, but no one knows what he will actually do,\u201d she added. \u201cWe're gonna hold him accountable. We're gonna watch closely to see who he chooses to lead the USTR. Will Wall Street have a voice or will the people have a voice?\u201d\nBut Ways & Means Committee member Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) while calling the rally TPP's \u201cburial ceremony\u201d in a time where \u201cthere hasn't been much to celebrate\u201d held open the possibility that Trump could revive the deal in an altered form.\n\u201cTPP in its current form is dead,\u201d he said, \u201cand the only question is will it come back in some zombie trade agreement to stalk us next year?\u201d\nOn the sidelines of the rally, Doggett told Inside U.S. Trade that because much about Trump's plans on trade policy is unknown, predicting what he will do on TPP and other trade deals is hard but he stressed the importance of who is picked to be the next U.S. Trade Representative.\n\u201cIt is very difficult to tell which way Presidentelect Trump is heading on any number of issues,\u201d Doggett said. \u201cI just think that in order to deliver anything on trade other than more broad comments of sympathy it is a matter of him having a trade ambassador who takes a new approach, who does clean house at USTR, brings in some new people, and secondly who is committed to opening this process significantly so that everything is not hidden.\u201d\nRep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) urged the presidentelect to follow through on his campaign promises for the U.S. working class, calling those voters' frustration with existing trade deals \u201cthe major issue\u201d that ensured his success among that group.\n\u201cWe the American people will be watching: Presidentelect Trump had better listen to what the American people said,\u201d DeFazio said. \u201cThis was a major, if not the major, issue in this campaign in my opinion that turned the working class toward Trump: their desperation. He's gonna have to deliver. He can't be business as usual.\u201d\nDeLauro offered a similar sentiment, calling it an \u201copen question\u201d whether Trump's message resonated so well with the working class in key states because the Obama administration pushed so hard for TPP.\n\u201cThe administration's aggressive role in pushing TPP during this entire election cycle, with cabinet people all over the country, with the USTR everywhere, with all kinds of statements in any and all forums, I think it is an open question as to whether or not that allowed Donald Trump to have the issue that cost us the Rust Belt states,\u201d DeLauro said.\nPublic Citizen's Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach agreed with the idea that Trump's victory could be linked to the administration's efforts to pass TPP in the lameduck session, but claimed that Trump \u2013 despite his adamant opposition to the deal \u2013 was not the reason the agreement has been defeated.\n\u201cThe unremitting push by the Obama administration for the TPP right through this election helped to elect Donald Trump, but Trump has not derailed the TPP \u2013 people power united across borders did that,\u201d Wallach said in a Nov. 15 statement. \u201cSix years of relentless, strategic campaigning by an international movement of people from the TPP countries united across borders to fight against corporate power is why the TPP is all but dead.\u201d\nAsked whether she is confident TPP will not be revived in a new administration as part of a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement \u2013 which is how the Obama administration has often tried to sell the deal because it includes both Mexico and Canada \u2013 DeLauro said even with \u201ctweaks\u201d that might satisfy Trump, the deal would face opposition.\n\u201cThey may try to have that conversation,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I believe that all sectors, the environmentalists as well, would just stand up and say no. No matter what kind of tweaking one can do, this is over.\u201d\nRep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), echoing DeLauro's sentiments, added that \u201cthe idea that we would enter into a free trade agreement with Vietnam as a mechanism for finetuning or renegotiating our trade deal with Canada and Mexico is just absurd.\u201d\n\u201cWhat we're promised with Vietnam is that we're gonna have free access to their markets,\u201d he added. \u201cVietnam has no freedom, Vietnam has no markets. Their tariffs are money paid by stateowned enterprises.\u201d\nDoggett told Inside U.S. Trade that a slightly altered TPP would not be sufficient to address Trump's problems with the deal.\n\u201cI don't think that a mere tweak will solve the problems there,\u201d Doggett said. \u201cHe didn't suggest 'let's just tweak it a little bit and we'll make it better.' No, he was declaring it to be such a bad deal and one of the few specifics he had was about currency manipulation.\u201d\n\u201cBut if he wants to engage all of us in that discussion I do think it's the basis for some bipartisan action. But he's going to have to quell the urge of Speaker Ryan who sponsored the fasttrack proposal, and folks who don't care about these other issues, who measure success in trade only by the volume of commerce,\u201d Doggett added.\nFood safety advocates joined lawmakers in touting TPP's defeat but made clear that while \u201cthe deal appears dead\u201d it could be considered by the new Congress or the Trump administration.\n\u201cWe will remain vigilant to ensure that the corporate lobbyists that support the deal do not make one last try to pass it during the remainder of the lameduck congressional session or in the next Congress,\u201d Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said in a Nov. 15 statement. \u201cThe lobbyists who are streaming into the Trump administration supported the TPP and the corporate trade model. We will reject the same corporate trade model masquerading as new trade policy under the next administration.\u201d\nAsked whether trade policy in the next Congress and under the new administration would be a bipartisan effort, DeLauro said yes, but also made clear that the Democrats in the House \u201cwere never divided on this issue.\u201d\n\u201cWe have 28 people who voted for fasttrack but that 160 [House Democrats who voted against it] never moved,\u201d she said.\nAs to how the coalition would address a potential revival of TPP under President Trump given his ties to establishment Republicans through his vice presidential pick, Mike Pence, and business leaders who might push for the agreement to be reconsidered, DeLauro touted the coalition's vigilance and persistence \u2013 and noted that its members have been opposed to the deal since negotiations began six years ago.\n\u201cWe are not going away I think that has been established,\u201d DeLauro said, adding that the effort to defeat the agreement began in 2010. \u201cWhy do you think we're just gonna wash our hands and move to the sidelines? It's not going to happen.\u201d\n\u201cAnd none of us think that Wall Street is going away, none of us think that the Chamber of Commerce is going away,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cNo, we're not going away.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/news-tpp-opponents-tout-deals-defeat-urge-trump-pick-ustr-favor-new"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7504541426897049, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}