After reports abounded on Thursday that President Donald Trump directed his administration’s senior economic and trade officials to look into rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he clarified in a late Thursday night tweet that the deal would have to be “substantially better” than the first iteration the United States signed.
“We already have BILATERAL deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!” Trump tweeted.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who attended a meeting at the White House with fellow lawmakers and local officials on agriculture Thursday afternoon, applauded Trump’s direction of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow to look into rejoining the agreement.
“The best thing the United States can do to push back against Chinese cheating now is to lead the other 11 Pacific nations that believe in free trade and rule of law,” Sasse said in statement.