West Virginia's congressional representatives remain leery of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the wide-ranging trade agreement finalized earlier this month between the United States and 11 other countries on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
The agreement, which would lower tariffs, strengthen labor and environmental protections, lengthen copyright protections and make dozens of other changes designed to encourage the flow of goods among member nations, is still subject to congressional approval. It is unclear when a vote might take place.
Critics of the agreement argue that it will continue the shift of American manufacturing jobs overseas, give multinational-corporations extra-legal protections and increase drug prices by extending pharmaceutical patents overseas.
In June, four of West Virginia's five members of Congress voted against a bill that gave President Barack Obama enhanced power to negotiate the deal and barred amendments or filibusters when the final deal comes up for a vote.
The bill, known as Trade Promotion Authority, passed narrowly after initially failing to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
It's certainly not unusual for most of West Virginia's representatives to oppose the president, but, nationally, the trade agreement has made for some strange alliances.
It is near the top of Obama's list of legislative priorities - but if it passes it will almost certainly be with mostly Republican support.
Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito was the only member of West Virginia's delegation to support Trade Promotion Authority in June, easing the way forward for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trade Promotion Authority passed the House by only eight votes with Republicans providing nearly 90 percent of the support. In the Senate it got 60 votes, the bare minimum necessary for passage, with 47 of those votes coming from Republicans.
All three Democratic presidential candidates now oppose the trade deal. Republican candidates are split, but largely support it.
The proposed final agreement, 30 chapters and thousands of pages long, is the broadest trade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. While the TPP was negotiated largely in secret, it was released publicly on Nov. 5.
Jonathan Kott, a spokesman for Sen. Joe Manchin, said the Democratic senator was still reviewing the agreement, but "remains skeptical" that it will benefit West Virginia.
Mike Hamilton, a spokesman for Rep. David McKinley, pointed to the Republican congressman's previous opposition to trade deals with Panama, Vietnam and South Korea.
"It is safe to say he is skeptical and will likely oppose it," Hamilton said.
Spokeswomen for Capito and Republican Rep. Evan Jenkins both said the legislators were still reviewing the deal.
Rep. Alex Mooney, a Republican, did not respond to requests for comment.
Shortly after the deal was published, the Obama administration released data touting its purported benefits in all 50 states.
West Virginia exported $2.6 billion, 35 percent of all its exports, to TPP countries in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, although the majority of that trade was with countries, such as Canada, that the U.S. already has existing trade agreements with.
The TPP would broker agreements with Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam, countries that account for 40 percent of the world's economy. The United States already has "preferential market access," meaning virtually tariff-free trade, with all of those countries except the last five.
According to the Commerce Department, 583 West Virginia companies exported goods to TPP countries in 2013.
The primary worry of opponents of the TPP, and trade agreements generally, is that it's not just goods that are being exported, but West Virginia jobs.
"This is one of those pieces of legislation that is sure to drive us deeper into poverty," said Kenny Perdue, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO. "You can get so much lower wages in the Pacific Rim, all these jobs just go over there. It's going to take business away from this state like we've never seen before."
The state and national Chambers of Commerce, big financial supporters of Republican candidates, are on Obama's side in supporting the TPP.
"We think that trade leads to growth and innovation and better jobs and we take a long view," said Steve Roberts, president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "We understand that in the short run people can be very afraid of trade because of the potential of worker displacement."
J.H. Fletcher makes underground mining equipment, selling about $10 to $20 million a year in exports, about 15 percent of its total business. The company has about 240 employees, most of them based in Huntington.
CEO Gregory Hinshaw said he was generally supportive of trade agreements and guessed that the TPP could mean about $2.5 million of new business for his company, largely in Chile and Peru. But he said that he had not reviewed the final deal and was worried that environmental regulations might be too stringent.
"If it had those types of provisions in this specific agreement, then we may reverse our support of it," Hinshaw said.
Based in Poca, Kanawha Scales & Systems sells weighing and automation equipment to companies across the United States and the world.
About 30 percent of their business is international, Anthony Sexton, the company's director of international sales said.
Sexton said they're generally in favor of trade agreements, but he's unsure about the TPP because of its size and because it was negotiated in secret.
"We're not really sure how it's going to affect us, it mentions a lot of good things, but it appears to be huge," he said. "Do we see it increasing our business, as we know it? Hmm, it'd be limited."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.