Three days after Hillary Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Barack Obama defended it in his weekly address.

“Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers live outside our borders,” the president said. “Ninety-five percent. They want to buy American products.”

On Wednesday Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, echoed concern on the left of the party when she came out against the deal in an interview with PBS, saying: “As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it.”

On Saturday, Obama continued: “They want our cars, our music, our food. And if American businesses can sell more of their products in those markets, they can expand and support good jobs here at home.”



The president said US exports supported about 12 million jobs “that typically pay better than other jobs”.

“But here’s the thing,” he added. “Outdated trade rules put our workers at a disadvantage. And TPP will change that.”

On Monday, the US and 11 other countries announced agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the biggest trade deal in a generation. In his five-minute address on the subject, Obama focused mostly on the taxes on US-made products that the deal will eliminate, saying that will level the playing field for American businesses and workers.

“Our businesses will get a fair deal,” he said. “And those who oppose passing this new trade deal are really just accepting a status quo that everyone knows puts us at a disadvantage.”



TPP has been years in the making, but it has come under fire from allies and enemies of the president alike. The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, a key voice on economic policies from the left, and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, running second in presidential polls, have long opposed the deal.

In a statement after Clinton’s PBS interview, the Sanders campaign said the senator was “glad that Secretary Clinton has now come on board”. Sanders continues to echo concerns among US labor unions that the deal will cost “millions of decent-paying jobs”.



While serving as secretary of state under Obama, Clinton spoke in favor of the TPP, saying at one point that it “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”.

In a statement issued after her PBS interview, Clinton said: “I still believe in the goal of a strong and fair trade agreement in the pacific as part of a broader strategy both at home and abroad, just as I did when I was secretary of state.

“I appreciate the hard work that President Obama and his team put into this process and recognize the strides they made. But the bar here is very high and, based on what I have seen, I don’t believe this agreement has met it.”

One of the main criticisms of TPP is that it has been shrouded in secrecy. So far the only parts of the deal the public has been able to read and review have been those that have been leaked. This week, Wikileaks released what it claimed to be the full intellectual property chapter of the TPP.

On Saturday, Obama dismissed criticism regarding such apparent secrecy.

“In the coming weeks and months, you’ll be able to read every word of this agreement online well before I sign it,” he said.

“You’ll be able to see for yourself how this agreement is better than past trade deals – and how it’s better for America’s working families.”