GLENS FALLS – U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has generally supported the concept of free trade, said Thursday she has reservations about provisions of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

“Last month I had the opportunity to sit down with our trade ambassador who is negotiating these trade agreements on behalf of the U.S., and I raised concerns from our dairy farmers, from our manufacturers in this district,” said the Republican from Willsboro.

Stefanik is running for re-election in New York’s 21st Congressional District against Democrat Mike Derrick, a retired Army colonel from Peru, and Green Party candidate Matt Funiciello, a bread company owner and political activist from Hudson Falls.

Derrick, on Wednesday, began running a television campaign commercial suggesting Stefanik “supports” the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade agreement between the United States and 11 other nations, an agreement that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump opposes.

“I don’t support Trump, but he’s right that we need to stop the job-killing TPP deal,” Derrick says in the commercial.

Stefanik said Thursday the commercial is “inaccurate and false” because she has not voted in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Post-Star reported Derrick’s references in his commercial were about trade promotion authority, commonly known as “fast track,” not the trade agreement itself, she said.

Trade promotion authority, which Stefanik voted in favor of, allows the administration to negotiate trade agreements based on predetermined objectives and priorities. Once an agreement is negotiated, Congress must vote up or down on whether to ratify it, without amendments. Trade promotion authority does not guarantee a trade agreement will be ratified.

“My opponent does not know the difference between TPA or TPP,” Stefanik said.

Derrick, contacted later on Thursday, said it is accurate to link Stefanik’s support of fast track with the Trans-Pacific Partnership because fast track is a mechanism to expedite the process of ratifying a trade agreement.

“The TPA facilitates and paves the way for the TPP,” he said. “In fact it accelerates and smooths the way for the TPP. … The extension there is the obvious conclusion you can draw.”

Funiciello agreed with Derrick’s logic but said the Democratic candidate should have differentiated between the two.

“It would certainly seem to be a precursor to supporting the partnership,” but not definitively, he said.

“I don’t believe she (Stefanik) has actually come out and said she is for the TPP,” Funiciello said.

Stefanik has said she generally supports the concept of trade agreements but has not endorsed the specific language of Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“I support free-trade agreements,” Stefanik said in a Nov. 1, 2014, Post-Star report, when asked in general about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Stefanik discussed the issue on Thursday when taking questions from reporters at a campaign stop at Glens Falls City Park, where she spoke about her legislative advocacy and public education efforts on Lyme disease.

“Results matter,” Stefanik said, referring to her advocacy of legislation she co-sponsored with Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, to form a “working group” of federal agencies and citizen experts to coordinate federal research and policy priorities for Lyme disease and similar tick-borne diseases.

The legislation was incorporated into a comprehensive medical research bill the House passed in July 2015 that has not yet been voted on in the Senate.

Stefanik also organized an August 2015 symposium on Lyme disease that nearly 400 people attended at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury.

“About 10 minutes after Elise Stefanik got into office, we approached her and asked her to take on Lyme disease as an issue,” said Holly Ahern, a SUNY Adirondack professor who heads the regional Lyme Action Network advocacy group.

State Sens. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, and Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, and Assemblyman Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, also spoke at the press conference and praised Stefanik for advocating on the Lyme disease issue.

Later on Thursday, a coalition of advocacy groups, including Citizen Action and NextGen Climate, held a protest outside Stefanik’s congressional office. The focus of the protest was Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign platform and Republicans, such as Stefanik, who support the Republican ticket.

“Hey, hey – Stefanik. You’ve got to stop Trump,” about two dozen demonstrators chanted.