LR mayor exhorts Congress to approve Asia trade treaty

WASHINGTON — Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola called on Congress Wednesday to approve a new trade agreement, arguing at a U.S. Conference of Mayors press conference that lawmakers should not allow “the politics of the future of 2016” to interfere with its passage.

“We’ve got the unique opportunity to have bipartisan support for this, and it is absolutely unconscionable that Congress doesn’t move this forward immediately,” he said.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said, will lower tariffs, enabling Arkansas businesses to expand and enter new markets.

“Our Little Rock port is 2,600 acres. It supports 3,500 jobs” and more than 40 businesses, he said. “Twelve million tons are exported out from Little Rock every year, with a cargo value of $3.9 billion.”

Opportunities for Arkansas businesses will expand if the trade deal is passed, he said. “It means a lot to my city as a medium-sized city. It’ll mean a lot to all of the cities in the country,” he said.

Stodola, chairman of the Mayors’ Task Force on Ports and Exports, was joined by other supporters of the agreement — U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and a group of fellow mayors: Kasim Reed of Atlanta, Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, Bob Buckhorn of Tampa and Christopher Cabaldon of West Sacramento, Calif.

The mayors are holding their annual winter meeting in Washington this week; the organization voted last year to back the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Supporters say the 12-nation pact would eliminate tariffs on more than 18,000 U.S. products while strengthening labor and environmental standards. Critics say it would hurt American workers.

The trade treaty is backed by President Barack Obama but opposed by Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. The presidential candidate who is leading in national Republican polls, Donald Trump, has called the TPP “a terrible deal.”

The White House has called for an early vote on the measure, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., expressing concerns about the deal, has said the vote should be delayed until after the 2016 elections.

In 2014, U.S. businesses sold more than $726 billion in goods to the 11 nations the U.S. would be in partnership with: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Congress gave Obama fasttrack authority to negotiate the terms of the trade deal. If Congress votes on the measure, it can approve or reject the entire

trade package; no amendments are allowed.

With the White House up for grabs and both parties fighting for control of the Senate, it’s a bad time to force the issue, McConnell said.

“It certainly shouldn’t come before the election. I don’t think so, and I have some serious problems with what I think it is,” McConnell told The Washington Post last month. “But I think the president would be making a big mistake to try to have that voted on during the election. There’s significant push-back all over the place.”

Landrieu urged lawmakers to move forward.

“You would think that Congress could get this done and they could get it done quick,” he said.

Other mayors stressed the importance of the deal.

“This really is about being first to the future,” said Reed, the Atlanta mayor.

With the trade agreement advancing elsewhere in the world, the U.S. must decide what its role will be, he said, asking, “Do we want the United States to set the rules of the road in that important relationship

or do we want to recede and leave that relationship to other important countries?”

Buckhorn, the Tampa mayor, said passage of the trade pact will be good for the economy.

“I can tell you in no uncertain terms that as mayors, these trade agreements mean jobs for us, and they mean jobs for our communities and jobs for the people we represent,” he said.

Asked afterward about Hillary Clinton’s opposition to the deal, Stodola said: “Maybe it’s time to give it another look. … People are getting pushed and pulled on these issues in the primary process and, frankly, I’m not sure it leads to the type of thinking that is necessary when we look at the global economy. If we don’t do this, other countries will do business with these 11 countries and we’re going to be in the backwater.”

It’s a message he’s willing to share with the former secretary of state and Arkansas first lady. “I’d certainly be happy to visit with her and let her know the importance of it to the state of Arkansas.”