With one day to go until the House votes on giving President Barack Obama broader authority on negotiating trade deals with other countries, Sen. Jeff Sessions doubted the president’s interest in trade Thursday.
In an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, Sessions suggested Obama wants to create “another monumental trans-Pacific organization” along the lines of the European Union using so-called “trade promotion authority.”
That authority would allow the president to agree to trade deals with foreign nations that Congress could approve or deny. Congress could not, however, filibuster the deal. Trade promotion authority is also known as “fast-track” authority.
“The threat is mostly to working Americans. That’s where the damage might be from an unwise agreement,” Sessions told Ingraham. “President Obama, I believe, has never been really interested in trade.”
“I think what his legacy vision is — he’s created another monumental trans-Pacific organization that has Australia, the sultan of Brunei, Vietnam all in this, and it has the ability to add new members, and he’s even talked about adding China into this agreement,” Sessions said. “I think it’s a huge historic event, that there’s no way this Republican conference, this Congress should give this to the president. We ought to know everything there is to know about it. Lawyers ought to explain every word that’s in it.”
“We need to know precisely what it is that’s occurring, and I don’t believe, frankly, that it should be given to this president, who’s already shown he’s not bound by law when it comes to promoting his agenda,” Sessions added.
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