POLITICO: Hillary’s trade dilemma

03/23/2015

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By DOUG PALMER | 3/20/15 6:49 PM EDT | Source: POLITICO Hillary’s Trade Dilemma Hillary Clinton is about to have her big trade moment. The likely 2016 presidential candidate has yet to show her hand on whether she supports the latest effort to pass “fast track” trade promotion authority, but that could happen as soon as Monday morning when she takes the stage with prominent labor leaders at a Washington event put on by a liberal-leaning political think tank.
What she says there — or in coming weeks — could improve or imperil her position with unions, Democratic colleagues in Congress, the business community and the sitting president.
If she comes out for fast track, it will alienate her labor and environmental base. If she opposes the legislation, it puts her at odds with President Barack Obama and her previous support as secretary of state for the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, opening her to charges of being a flip-flopper. Progressive Democrats urging Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to get in the presidential race want Clinton to clarify her position as early as possible, given pending action in Congress on a “fast track” trade promotion authority bill, said Neil Sroka, a spokesman for Democracy for America, the group founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.