By Ken Stone
Times of San Diego
SAN DIEGO — She uttered the words slowly and deliberately — as if speaking to a child.
“At home and abroad, we are increasingly fighting the view that suggests we pull up the drawbridge and retreat into isolationism,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said Wednesday in San Diego. “My friends, you all know this. But. That. Will. Not. Work.”
Addressing 400 Qualcomm employees in Sorrento Valley, the nation’s top trade official didn’t name Donald Trump and other critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
But that was her real audience in boosting TPP, the 12-nation trade deal pushed by President Obama and backed by Democratic Reps. Susan Davis and Scott Peters of San Diego.
“We must get it done this year,” Pritzker said of TPP approval. “We must look to cities like San Diego as a model and help more communities find their own phones, drones and genomes” — specialties for export.
In a 12-minute talk at Qualcomm Hall, she said TPP would lift more than 18,000 foreign tariffs on U.S.-made products, cut red tape and export delays and free up money for expansion — while boosting wages of high-paying jobs on a “level playing field.”
“All of us are excited about TPP,” she said. “Yet we must acknowledge that many of us have friends and neighbors here in San Diego and across the country who are anxious about … another trade deal. Today the American people are more afraid of trade, more anxious about the future and more frustrated with government than ever before.”
Why?
Pritzker said U.S. economic gains are not felt “either evenly or immediately by all. … Wages aren’t expanding fast enough. Americans understandably are feeling left behind in today’s rapidly changing global economy.”
But blocking a free-trade deal or “cracking down on immigration” are no solution, she said.Pritzker said U.S. economic gains are not felt “either evenly or immediately by all. … Wages aren’t expanding fast enough. Americans understandably are feeling left behind in today’s rapidly changing global economy.”
“The reality is that forces that are causing this anxiety, the forces of globalization, of automation, of rapid change — they’re going to continue to reshape our growth whether we embrace them or we resist them.”
In fact, if America doesn’t seize the day on free trade, others will, she said, noting that 100 trade deals have been passed in the Asia-Pacific region alone since 2000, “and many of them disadvantage our American companies and our American workers. We cannot afford to retreat from a region that generates 40 percent of global economic output.”
The longer that America waits to pass TPP, the more influence the nation cedes to China and other countries — in national security as well. (China isn’t part of TPP. The trade pact includes the Pacific Rim nations of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Vietnam.)
“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s be frank,” said Pritzker, who followed Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf to the auditorium lectern. “The world is watching. American leadership and prosperity are at stake with this agreement.”
Calling the “heated rhetoric” around TPP louder than ever, she urged audience members to make their voices heard.
“We must not let the most progressive trade agreement in our nation’s history … fall victim to our fear of the future,” she said. “Now is the time to secure high-standard trade agreements that reflect our interests and our values.”
With Hillary Clinton turning against TPP to win support of Bernie Sanders voters, Pritzker said she’s hoping for a vote in the lame-duck session of Congress — between Election Day and the January inauguration.
At a brief press conference afterward, the billionaire businesswoman who helped raise money for Obama’s election told three reporters that TPP approval has a “narrow window.”
“My personal opinion is that it will be very difficult to get it done past this period for years — because you’ll have a changing political landscape,” she said.
Citing San Diego’s geographic advantage as a “natural trading partner” for TPP nations, Pitzker said 97 percent of the region’s exports already go to would-be TPP members.
“So reduction in trade costs … will create additional opportunities for the firms already doing business in the TPP countries as well as those that don’t currently export to them.”
She seconded the Qualcomm CEO’s celebration of TPP making countries “abide by intellectual property protection.” And she noted a UC San Diego report that says every 1 percent increase in tariff levels is associated with about $2.3 million in lower export volumes.
“Lowering the tariffs ultimately leads to job creation,” she said, pushing back against beliefs that TPP would be a second coming of NAFTA.
What does she think when Trump calls U.S. trade negotiators stupid?
Pritzker declined to comment on the Republican nominee’s campaign or rhetoric.
“What I will say is my background is in the private sector,” she began. “I’ve negotiated a lot of deals in my day. No deal is ever perfect. … There’s always going to be parts of an agreement you don’t like. … Having said that, I look at this deal and I see the enormous benefit for American companies and American workers.”
TPP would give U.S. companies access to markets where tariffs sometimes exceed 40 percent, she said.
“This is a darn good deal, and it’s one that we should take advantage of. As the prime minister of Singapore said … They want the American presence. American leadership is really at stake here. … And American prosperity as well.”
In an irony of history, Pritzker’s late father was named Donald.
What would the co-founder of Hyatt hotels say about today’s debate?
“I think my father would agree with what I said,” she said.
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Stone is a contributing editor of The Times of San Diego, with which San Diego Jewish World has a news sharing agreement under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association (SDONA).