Connecticut congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has welcomed an executive order from President Donald Trump, formally withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership.
The massive, twelve-nation trade deal was a signature issue for former President Obama, but he couldn’t gain congressional support to ratify the agreement last year.
DeLauro called the executive order "largely symbolic" and a culmination of years of work by the deal’s opponents.
"Working together with consumer protection, faith, human rights activists, and members of Congress, it took about five years to defeat the Trans Pacific Partnership," she said. "The agreement died from a lack of support from Democrats and Republicans in the Congress and the opposition of the American people."
DeLauro opposed the TPP because she feared it would lead to job losses and lower wages.
She’s now calling on President Trump to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Deal, or NAFTA, under more favorable terms for American workers.
"We support a renegotiation of NAFTA and as a matter of fact have laid out rules of the road of expectations of what should happen in trade agreements," she told WNPR. "I think NAFTA renegotiation is an opportunity to create a new trade model, whereby you deliver benefits to more people."