Hillary Clinton comes out against TPP -- but leaves wiggle room: "As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it"

“I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set," the former secretary of state tells PBS

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published October 7, 2015 8:07PM (EDT)

  (AP/Charlie Neibergall)
(AP/Charlie Neibergall)

"As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it," Hillary Clinton said of the recently agreed upon Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact today.

The 12 nation treaty encompassing roughly 40 percent of the world's economy has become a political hot potato stateside. Clinton, the secretary of state when negotiations on the treaty first began, told PBS's Judy Woodruff that she no longer supports the deal in its current incarnation.

Clinton made her comments during an interview for the PBS "News Hour," saying “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set" and setting the bar as "create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security."

Although she conceded that she is still "trying to learn as much as I can about the agreement" she cited her concerns “about currency manipulation" in Asia and other "unanswered questions."  Clinton also claimed that “pharmaceutical companies may have gotten more benefits and patients fewer.”

"We've learned a lot about trade agreements in the past years," Clinton concluded before admitting that "now looking back on it, it doesn't have the results they thought it would have."

In 2012, then-Secretary of State Clinton said TPP "sets the gold standard in trade agreements."

Watch Clinton come out against the TPP three years later, via PBS:


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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