We knew that Trump's decision to unilaterally pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) would open up opportunities for other countries while cutting off opportunities for Americans, but what does that actually look like in practice?
Politico Magazine has taken a close look at specific cases, particularly in the agricultural sector, where Trump's decision will mean American farmers will not be able to compete with other nations that are negotiating their own trade deals without the United States.
The kicker is how much of this is being accomplished through a framework that the United States negotiated for before Trump abandoned it.
On July 6, the EU, which already exports as much pork to Japan as the United States does, announced political agreement on a new deal that would give European pork farmers an advantage of up to $2 per pound over U.S. exporters under certain circumstances—a move which, if unchecked, is all but certain to create a widening gap between EU exports and those from the United States.
European wine producers, who sold more than $1 billion to Japan between 2014 and 2016, would also see a 15 percent tariff on exports to Japan disappear while U.S. exporters would continue to face that duty at the border. For other products, the deal essentially mirrors the rates negotiated under the TPP, which the United States has surrendered, giving the EU a clear advantage over U.S. farmers.
Just because the United States has decided to take our ball and go home doesn't mean other countries are going to stop playing.
In fact, other nations are planning to go ahead and ratify the Trans Pacific Partnership without us.
The remaining 11 TPP countries have already met two times, with a third meeting planned, to move ahead with the revival of the deal without the United States. The so-called TPP-11 would be in direct response to Trump’s trade policy. Economic forecasts already show projected gains for countries involved. Canada, according to one estimate, could permanently gain an annual market share of $412 million in beef and $111 million in pork sales to Japan by 2035, because lower tariffs would enable it to eclipse America’s position in the market.
I would be remiss not to point out that this is not a just a creation of Donald Trump.
A faction of liberals in America led by Senator Bernie Sanders, puritanical socialites, and union bosses spent most of the past two years condemning the TPP and trade in general. They revised history to blame the shortcomings of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), our failure to adapt to the global market, and even the near-collapse of the auto industry almost exclusively on Hillary Clinton even though she was merely the First Lady in 1993.
You may have noticed that we haven't heard much about trade in recent months, and that's not a coincidence. Hillary Clinton is no longer around to be used as a collective punching bag for issues that she bears little to no responsibility for.
You should read the full article at Politico Magazine.