Donald Trump is not wasting any time on trade. Or is he? In his video message about what he’ll do on day one, he said he’d abandon Barack Obama’s plan to broker a 12-country free-trade agreement for the Pacific region, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP). But that’s the thing with the Donald – it’s impossible to say if he’s serious or just collecting material for a new chapter in The Art of the Deal. Does he really want to pull out of the TPP? Or is his threat just part of a negotiation?
Killing the TPP would be a waste – but for other reasons than the economy. It certainly wouldn’t ‘bring back American jobs’. In the campaign, Trump repeated a lot of invented statistics from left-wing groups about how the TPP would destroy jobs and growth. More credible estimates point to a different reality. TPP would mean more demand for American goods to the tune of $350-billion.
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