Dylan Corbett

Guest columnist

A major priority of President Obama during his recent trip to Asia is shoring up support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is an agreement negotiated between the United States and 11 other countries that will affect everything from trade, migration and health to a country's ability to implement commonsense regulations.

Accompanying the president on Air Force One during his trip to Vietnam was El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke. In a speech there, the President announced that O’Rourke was a “strong supporter” of the TPP.

The TPP is the latest example of so-called free trade agreements. While there are undoubtedly benefits to international trade, these agreements are notorious for exacerbating inequality and for their indifference to their negative economic, environmental and human impacts.

Border communities are well versed in the effects of free trade. One only need listen to the stories of lost jobs from women in El Paso’s Segundo Barrio to understand the damage left behind in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

NAFTA cost El Paso thousands of jobs, consolidated an inhumane wage structure in Juarez, and sent millions of migrants fleeing north when U.S. corn flooded Mexico’s markets and ended family farming there.

TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids because it will cover 12 countries representing about 40 percent of the world economy. While Americans may not be acquainted with the fine points of trade policy, they are too familiar with the outsourcing, loss of manufacturing jobs and negative effects of deregulation related to international trade.

These have become core issues in this year’s presidential election. The TPP has been attacked by both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Under popular pressure, Hillary Clinton has reversed course and now opposes the agreement.

Few Democrats in Congress support the president’s signature trade initiative. The TPP has also been criticized for the process which led to its final text, which was hammered out by corporate lobbyists, lawyers and those most poised to gain from relaxed trade rules long before elected representatives were able to even see it.

Because it will give Asian competitors an advantage over Mexican production, TPP will have a significant effect on the border. This threatens to destabilize the service and logistics industry related to trade with Juarez that has replaced El Paso’s lost manufacturing sector.

To his credit, O’Rourke has met several times with local leaders, including labor representatives, clergy and community activists to study the TPP agreement and hear their concerns.

Although the TPP will be of enormous consequence for our border community, up to now O’Rourke has not taken a position for or against TPP. However, either President Obama just outed the congressman on his true view of the agreement or tried to force his hand.

The effects of TPP on our border will be felt for decades, if not longer. With our unique role in the global economy, our border should lead on trade policy.

We deserve more than delay or mixed messages on where our congressman stands.

Congressman O’Rourke has demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing a positive image of our region at a time when demonizing migrants and playing political football with the border have become commonplace.

Now he has a chance to lead again by standing for human dignity before profit in trade policy and restoring transparency to the murky process which led to the TPP.

Dylan Corbett is the executive director of the Hope Border Institute, a grassroots education and advocacy organization on the Mexico-U.S. border.