January 25, 2017

TPP Was Doomed To Fail

By: Patrick M. Cronin

America’s exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership should serve as a breakthrough development to spur widespread prosperity across the United States and build durable economic ties to the most promising and dynamic parts of Asia. This exit is far from signaling the death knell of U.S. regional leadership.

TPP died a slow, painful death when it repeatedly met the court of public opinion throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Political figures Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders saw too many Americans left behind by a globalized economy. Many people forget that even pivot architect Hillary Clinton climbed on the anti-TPP bandwagon in 2015.

On his first full business day in the White House, President Trump signed an executive order officially withdrawing the United States from the twelve-nation Pacific trade pact and let his constituents know that he was fulfilling a campaign promise. By then, it was obvious that Iran had more paths to a nuclear weapon than TPP had to political approval within the American political body.

Read the full article at The National Interest.

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