New national poll says voters still want the TPP to protect manufacturing jobs.
President Obama is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this week where 19 world leaders gather annually to discuss growth and trade. The hot topic at this year’s meeting: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The president will be selling its benefits to his counterparts, but Americans back home are far from convinced.
The TPP appears to do little to combat currency manipulation, state-owned entities, or set a high standard for ‘rules of orgin’ – three issues that have a direct effect on America’s manufacturers and workers.
According to a new poll, wide, bipartisan majorities of registered voters believe broadly that the TPP should support manufacturing jobs in the United States. And specifically, voters believe the TPP should have penalties for countries that manipulate their currency.
And they’re not the only ones. Former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said as much Thursday:
@HillaryClinton on TPP: extraordinary effort that fell short, especially on currency
— Mark Landler (@MarkLandler) November 19, 2015
Why does this matter? Without rules to prevent our trading partners from manipulating their currency, American companies and workers face a constant competitive disadvantage. And, it turns out, voters are concerned.
Check out more topline numbers:
- 75 percent of registered voters believe that the TPP should support U.S. manufacturing jobs.
- Nearly 8 in 10 (79 percent) say the TPP should have penalties to prevent currency manipulation.
- Two-thirds (66 percent) think that the TPP should require that a product’s component parts should come from TPP member countries in order to qualify for reduced import taxes (commonly referred to as Rules of Origin).
- More than half (52 percent) believe Congress should renegotiate or vote down the TPP.
While Obama tries to sell the deal, Americans aren’t buying it. Remember, 52 percent of registered voters believe Congress should renegotiate or vote down the TPP. The issues may not be simple, but Americans’ concerns are clear.
Read the full poll results here.
**This national poll was commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted November 12 to November 18, 2015. For the survey, a sample of 1,650 registered voters age 18 and over were interviewed online. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for all respondents.**