Tea Party skeptical of trade talks

Tea Party opposition to potential trade deals would complicate efforts to get the agreements through Congress, The Wall Street Journal reports.

{mosads}Two decades after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), there is skepticism about trade talks with Pacific countries and with Europe on both the left and the right. 

Liberals believe the deals could weaken consumer regulations, and are pushing to penalize countries — like Japan — that they believe have manipulated their currencies. Conservatives are concerned the deals could take power out of the United States’s hands. 

“You need three-quarters of the Republicans, because you’re going to have at least half of Democrats voting against it,” Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics told the Journal.