Administration Pushes National Security Angle of TPP

Senior Obama Administration officials pushed the anticipated national security benefits they expect the Trans-Pacific Partnership will provide during a call with reporters on March 29. During the call, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Christman, who now serves as Potomac Research Group’s senior national security analyst and previously served as an assistant for the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the Administration, said that TPP is crucial in barring China from encroaching on U.S. interests and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. If TPP is not ratified, “it’d be kicking the teeth for our friends and allies who have extended themselves to sign up to the high-standard goals that TPP represents,” Christman said. Failure to seal the U.S. commitment to ratification could also pose strategic and diplomatic setbacks, as fellow TPP members are expecting the U.S. to follow through, he said.

Asia-Pacific nations view TPP as a litmus test of U.S. staying power in the region, and a rules-based order there would help assure that the region isn’t one that “drags us into conflict” or compromises U.S. interests or standing, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said during the call. Delaying TPP implementation would carry strategic, as well as economic, costs, as the values of the U.S. and U.S. allies related to sustainable development are etched into the agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said during the call. “Those are all put at risk the longer that we wait,” he said. Froman is meeting on March 29 with former military leaders to discuss what strategic benefits TPP will bring to the table. Froman said that he believes Congress will move more in favor of it as it learns more about the upsides of ratification and the downsides of not ratifying. “Obviously, we think that there is very much, still, a likelihood of getting this done, and getting it done this year,” Froman said. “The business community is beginning to mobilize around this just now.” USTR continues to engage leadership on the committees of House Ways and Means and Senate Finance, he said.