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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the Washington Post on Thursday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is at its core “just pure, unadulterated horse waste."
The pact is a proposed trade agreement between the 12 Pacific Rim countries, including the United States. The deal has been negotiated in secret since 2012. Although negotiators have been gagged from publicly release details of the deal, select industry lobbyists have been involved in talks alongside government officials.
Advocates of the deal argue the TPP will streamline international trade, but critics warn the proposed agreement is little more than a handout to big corporations that will be a blow to workers in developed nations and impose draconian copyright and intellectual property regulations. In light of its controversy and large opposition to the trade deal, top U.S. legislators are crafting a bill that would hand President Barack Obama the power to fast track it and secure the TPP before 2016 presidential elections begin.
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Trumka has been a vocal opponent of the trade pact and warned in his interview with the Washington Post that if Obama succeed in passing the deal, U.S. workers would punish Democrats at the polls.
The AFL-CIO has started a public campaign against the TPP, recently releasing a short video explaining why the trade deal is harmful for U.S. American workers.
While Trumka said U.S. workers will punish Democrats if the pact goes through, he claims he is also no fan of the Republican counterparts.
"What we want to see is someone who has an agenda for working people and will fight for that agenda to make it a reality," he said.
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