WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal must include measures aimed at increasing jobs and wages for US workers while addressing currency manipulation by foreign nations that is damaging to the American economy, US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton stated on Tuesday.
“Any trade deal I would support must increase jobs, wages, give us more economic competitive power to sell goods,” Clinton said at a business roundtable in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Clinton argued that currency manipulation — the governments’ buying or selling foreign currency to push the exchange rate away from equilibrium — results in an uneven economic playing field.
Clinton also argued that the TPP agreement should be strong in its merits on health and environment needs.
“I’ve been for trade agreements, I’ve been against them,” Clinton concludes. “I make my evaluation based on what I think they would produce.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty, focused on enhancing trade and investment among TPP partner countries to create innovation, economic growth and economic development.
Twelve Pacific Rim countries are involved in the trade deal, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States.
The TPP covers roughly 40 percent of the global economy.
On May 14, 2015, the administration of US President Barack Obama said it supports amendments to a fast-track trade bill that will provide benefits and retraining to workers, known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, impacted by the TPP deal.
