President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the country from a massive trade agreement with countries around the Pacific Rim is getting some push back in Oregon.
Sandra McDonough heads the Portland Business Alliance. Her group supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She says as many as half a million jobs in Oregon are related to international trade.
“So what we’re hoping the administration will do is find other means of opening markets. If it’s not multinational agreements like the TPP, then maybe they’ll look at bilateral agreements or other ways to work with our trading partners to make sure that we keep markets open," McDonough said.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, said Trump’s decision to pull out of the TPP won’t help American workers. In a statement released Monday morning, he said, “there is as much transparency into Trump’s trade policy as there is into his conflicts of interest with foreign governments.”
In May 2015, former President Obama traveled to Nike’s global headquarters in Beaverton to push the trade deal.
Copyright 2017 Oregon Public Broadcasting
