Brown believes Clinton on trade pact

Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton is not being honest when she says she opposes the 12-nation Pacific trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but Sen. Sherrod Brown said Thursday he takes the Democratic presidential nominee at her word.

“She means it and she’s solid on it,” said Brown, D-Ohio, at a news conference on Capitol Hill. “I trust her.”

During Monday’s presidential debate, Trump said Clinton will implement the trade deal if she is elected president and that she only started opposing it because he did.

Brown and 11 other Democratic senators released a letter urging President Barack Obama not to ask Congress to approve the pact when it returns after the November election unless the administration negotiates major revisions on currency manipulation and environmental standards.

Brown said the pact “puts the profits of multinational corporations before the American people.”

The pact would create a major free-trade zone between the United States and 11 other Pacific-rim countries. China is not included.