There seems to be some question of where Hillary Clinton stands on the TPP, with other Presidential candidates calling on her to take a stand. It's no secret. She was its chief advocate and principal architects.
We are also making progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which will bring together economies from across the Pacific — developed and developing alike — into a single trading community. Our goal is to create not just more growth, but better growth. We believe trade agreements need to include strong protections for workers, the environment, intellectual property, and innovation. They should also promote the free flow of information technology and the spread of green technology, as well as the coherence of our regulatory system and the efficiency of supply chains. Ultimately, our progress will be measured by the quality of people’s lives — whether men and women can work in dignity, earn a decent wage, raise healthy families, educate their children, and take hold of the opportunities to improve their own and the next generation’s fortunes. Our hope is that a TPP agreement with high standards can serve as a benchmark for future agreements — and grow to serve as a platform for broader regional interaction and eventually a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific.
also calls for expanded military presence:
How we translate the growing connection between the Indian and Pacific oceans into an operational concept is a question that we need to answer if we are to adapt to new challenges in the region. Against this backdrop, a more broadly distributed military presence across the region will provide vital advantages. The United States will be better positioned to support humanitarian missions; equally important, working with more allies and partners will provide a more robust bulwark against threats or efforts to undermine regional peace and stability.
That she was the TPP's chief pimp throughout Asia isn't a secret. It's on the State Department website.
So it's fair to say that our economies are entwined, and we need to keep upping our game both bilaterally and with partners across the region through agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. Australia is a critical partner. This TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field. And when negotiated, this agreement will cover 40 percent of the world's total trade and build in strong protections for workers and the environment.
ontheissues.org calls her its Chief Advocate.
Critics have said that the agreement would ease regulations protecting both laborers & the environment, despite claims from Clinton to the contrary: "Our goal for TPP is to create not just more growth, but better growth. We believe the TPP needs to include strong protections for workers, the environment, intellectual property, and innovation," Clinton said at the event in 2011. "It should also promote the free flow of information technology and the spread of green technology, as well as the coherence of our regulatory system and the efficiency of supply chains."
Then Russia in 2012:
Secretary Clinton noted how our negotiating partners are engaged in intense diplomacy to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership, known as the TPP. She said, "This free trade agreement is central to America's economic vision in Asia. By reducing market distortions and leveling the playing field, the TPP will raise the bar for competition in a way that benefits every economy in the region, whether it is an active partner in the TPP or not."
She's held these views for a long time. In Living History, her autobiography, she wrote:
"Creating a free trade zone in North America — the largest free trade zone in the world — would expand U.S. exports, create jobs and ensure that our economy was reaping the benefits, not the burdens, of globalization. Although unpopular with labor unions, expanding trade opportunities was an important administration goal."
Every time she talks about it I think of Ross Perot's giant sucking sound, when he predicted NAFTA would cause mass exporting of American, and particularly union jobs. He was exactly right, alas, George H.W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton were both its champions.