Pacific Trade Deal Called Dead

Congressional leaders have confirmed what seemed inevitable since the presidential election: The far-reaching trade agreement with 11 other Pacific Rim nations, which President-Elect Donald Trump dubbed “a terrible deal” during his campaign, is dead.

Trump has said he will issue a notice on his first day in office that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But the move may be too late to be significant.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming Democratic leader, has told labor leaders that the TPP would not be approved by Congress. Senator Mitch
McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told reporters a lame-duck Congress would not consider the agreement.

There is little likelihood of Trump seeking a new agreement, based on statements he made during the campaign and his years-long hostility to past trade accords.

The Pacific pact was seven years in the making. It excluded China and included compromises among a dozen countries including Australia, Canada, Chile and Japan.

Among supporters, TPP was hailed as a sophisticated trade deal, establishing rules of commerce that would rope both sides of the Pacific together into a 21st-century economy, while cementing the United States’ alliance with Asia.

So, what is lost by abandoning it?

“We are experiencing lost sales without TPP” of about $400,000 a day as a result, said Kevin Kester, a California cattle rancher and vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

“Multiply that over several hundred more products and several dozen more free-trade relationships,” Froman said.

The TPP would have phased out some 18,000 tariffs that the other 11 countries have on imports from the United States, thus reducing their cost to foreign buyers. Beyond such typical trade actions, it also would have established a number of precedents for international trade rules dealing with digital commerce, intellectual property rights, human rights and environmental protection.

Sources: New York Times, Washington Times