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This R&D provides resources on the Trans-Pacific Parternship (TPP). The TPP is a free trade zone that includes twelve Pacific Rim nations such as the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia. The Obama administration has championed the deal as a way to counter China’s influence in the Pacific, but Republicans and Democrats have expressed skepticism about the accord. Negotiations on the TPP were completed last Monday, but now the accord faces fierce ratification battles that could be lost pending political changes in the nations that signed.
What happens next? The conclusion of TPP negotiations analyzed by CSIS: http://t.co/BebJoT5sUb pic.twitter.com/Uum2FJmg5G
— CSIS (@CSIS) October 12, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is a landmark achievement, but what battles remain? http://t.co/Y11vPI6uPS #TPP pic.twitter.com/evfxHdBf54
— Brookings FP (@BrookingsFP) October 12, 2015
The 2016 presidential frontrunners threaten the Trans-Pacific Partnership http://t.co/cswHhF3Rqs
— Fortune (@FortuneMagazine) October 12, 2015
Free trade deals are one of the hallmarks of globalization. They allow countries to reduce trade barriers, allow for a freer flow of goods and services, and are tool of “soft” diplomacy. The 1990s and 2000s was an era for American free trade accords as the United States worked with Canada and Mexico to create the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and then signed additional agreements with another eighteen countries. While proponents argue that these deals will allow consumers to acquire cheaper goods and that the deals serve America’s geopolitical interests, opponents allege that they strengthen the power of corporations at the expense of the middle class and that they produce sizable job losses. Growing trade skepticism could impair the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade accord between the United States and eleven other nations in the Pacific Rim. President Barack Obama is a supporter of the TPP and is pushing Congress to grant him trade promotion authority (TPA) to conclude the deal. Ironically, Republicans who have been an obstruction to much of the President’s agenda for the last six years are his biggest allies in the TPP fight, but Obama will likely have to win over some moderate Democrats to overcome opposition from unions and progressives to make the TPP a reality.
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