Labor leaders whose support she will need in her campaign strongly oppose the pact, as does the progressive wing of her party. Clinton threads needle on trade deal

Under pressure to stake out a position on the controversial trade deal reached by congressional leaders, Hillary Clinton’s campaign put down its first marker on Friday, saying she “will be watching closely” to see how the deal affects currency, labor rights and environmental concerns — but she stopped short of supporting the deal.

“Hillary Clinton believes that any new trade measure has to pass two tests: First, it should put us in a position to protect American workers, raise wages and create more good jobs at home,” spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. “Second, it must also strengthen our national security. We should be willing to walk away from any outcome that falls short of these tests. The goal is greater prosperity and security for American families, not trade for trade’s sake.”


Stating a position on the issue requires some major needle-threading for Clinton as she kicks off her presidential campaign. The statement released Friday managed to offend few, but satisfy fewer who want answers on where she will end up on the issue.

Labor leaders whose support she will need in her campaign strongly oppose the pact, as does the progressive wing of her party.

But opposing the legislation would pit her against President Barack Obama — who is pushing just as hard to institute trade proposals in his final 19 months in office — and could open Clinton up to attacks that she is guided by political winds: as secretary of state, she supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement negotiations.

“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,” Clinton wrote in Foreign Policy magazine in 2011.

The U.S., Japan and 10 other countries are still in the throes of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which is expected to be the largest trade deal in history covering more than 40 percent of global GDP. Countries are negotiating everything from tariff reductions to labor and environment rules.

In what could be seen as a break from Obama’s stance on the TPP talks, Clinton’s statement says she will be tracking how an agreement deals with currency manipulation. The Obama administration is opposed to including currency rules in the TPP pact.

Clinton “will be watching closely to see what is being done to crack down on currency manipulation, improve labor rights, protect the environment and health, promote transparency, and open new opportunities for our small businesses to export overseas,” Merrill said in the statement. “As she warned in her book, Hard Choices, we shouldn’t be giving special rights to corporations at the expense of workers and consumers.”

Clinton’s statement left her options open, but her critics jumped in.

Her possible challenger in the Democratic primary, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, sent out an email to supporters Friday strongly denouncing the deal. “We must stop entering into bad trade deals that hurt middle class wages and ship middle class jobs overseas,” he wrote. “And we certainly shouldn’t be fast tracking failed deals.”

His spokeswoman Lis Smith blasted out his comments on the trade bill after Clinton made her own, saying “no hedging here.”

The right-wing America Rising PAC also saw an opening, and accused Clinton of pandering to the left.

“Proving once again that she’ll say or do anything to win an election, Hillary Clinton is backing off her effusive praise of President Obama’s trade deal in order to curry favor with the far left-wing of her party,” said Jeff Bechdel, communications director for the America Rising PAC.