American Jobs
As far as the Trans-Pacific deal, despite Congress’s approval of “fast track” authorization for the agreement in 2015, it was never formally authorized by the U.S. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said they grew increasingly concerned it would result in a loss of American jobs.
The future of the TPP is now in flux. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in November that TPP without the U.S. would be “ meaningless.” Still, multiple signatory countries including Vietnam and Australia have said they would stick to the deal even without the leading party of the agreement.
Trump made trade one of the central issues of his campaign, which found success in the former industrial areas of states such as Wisconsin and Michigan. Both states were often considered strongly Democratic before they flipped to Trump in 2016.
In a June speech in Pittsburgh, Trump attacked the deal, which he said “would be the death blow” for American factories. “It would give up all of our economic leverage to an international commission that would put the interests of foreign countries above our own,” he said.
While some had pushed for the Congress to vote on the agreement in a lame-duck session after the election, the vote never materialized.
11th-Hour Push
In the final days of the Obama administration, six U.S. ambassadors in Asia attempted to push for a last-minute vote on the pact, which they said if abandoned would cede international leadership to China, which isn’t a part of the TPP. “Such an outcome would be cause for celebration among those who favor ‘Asia for the Asians’ and state capitalism,” the ambassadors wrote in a letter.
Rather than support wide-ranging regional trade agreements, Trump has proposed negotiating bilateral trade agreements. He has also proposed enacting tariffs on imports to protect domestic manufacturing.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.