What does the death of the T.P.P. mean for America?

         President Donald Trump signed the death warrants for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  Throughout the presidential campaign. TPP was discussed at a high volume. Member of the Obama Administration argued that the TPP would “Help increase Made-in-American exports, grow the American economy, support well-paying American jobs, and strengthen the American middle class.” That is according to The New Yorker. The TPP would have created a pacific trade zone not unlike the zone NAFTA crated in North America but comprising multiplied countries surrounding the pacific like New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Peru, and Chile by 2030. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/business/tpp-explained-what-is-trans-pacific-partnership.html

TPP's Environment

Many environmental groups are concerned with the state of TPP's environment. The U.S. free-trade agreements from 2007 failed to require that TPP countries to follow a set of international environmental treaties. The TPP’s rules wouldn’t do enough to protect the environment from illegal activities. Fracking, which is a the term for extracting oil/as, is something we could see a whole lot more of due to the TPP. The previous agreement means our Department of Energy would automatically have to accept all exports of liquefied natural gas to all TPP countries—including Japan. This means more fracking, pollution, climate emissions and reliance on fossil fuels would exist in the countries of TPP. TPP should have found more ways to be environmentally friendly to help the planet and embrace cleanliness. 

Source: (Solomon, 2015)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18695/TPP_Free-Trade_Globalization_Obama

What is the TTIP?

The TTIP is an abbreviation for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This comes from the EU trying to establish a trade and investment deal with the USA. The TTIP is being negotiated to help the US open up to opportunities from EU firms. It will come up with new rules regarding exporting, importing, and investing overseas.These new rules will allow for the provisions of energy and materials to be accessible. They'll protect people's rights and the environment while saving time and money on paperwork. The TTIP would be used to promote world trade rules and to generate more jobs and growth, offering people more choices to choose from. TTIP can benefit everyone in the world but to get it right we need to listen everyone's concerns and take them into consideration.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/about-ttip/

TPP's affect on Canada

Canada can greatly benefit from the TPP if it can come together with the remaining countries and create the deal without the U.S. Some of the positively effected industries are as follows:

Agriculture - The TPP eliminates most tariffs in the agriculture industry. For Canada, that means they can trade more products such as pork, beef, maple syrup, fruits and vegetables to other countries that were to expensive to prior.

Sea Food - The TPP fully eliminates tariffs on sea food (in 10-15 years), which gives Canada to opportunity to trade with countries such as Japan and Vietnam. Currently, these countries have very heavy tariffs on sea food that make it hard for Canada to export these goods.

Industrial goods - The TPP would eventually eliminate all tariffs on industrial goods. Some countries such as Vietnam have very high tariffs on certain metals (up to 40%). By eliminating these expenses, Canada could afford to trade with these countries.

There are a lot of things that can benefit Canada in the TPP. However, with the United States pulling out of the agreement, we will have to see if Canada can come together with the remaining countries and create a deal.

What will the TPP mean for China?

What will the TPP mean for china? The TPP is a pretty big deal since it’s the most important trade deal negotiated in over 20 years. According to China file “China has more recently dropped its blanket opposition, and taken a more nuanced “wait and see” attitude. On many occasions, Chinese spokesmen have indicated that although they were not ready to meet the demanding requirements of a potential TPP agreement today, they might be ready and willing to join in a few years.”

The TPP shows the United States and Japan exercising leadership and stepping out ahead of the global community in their willingness to negotiate new set of rules and obligation. What does this mean for china? It means that it is going to create the possibility that the future rule for the global economy will be written under predominant U.S. influence. This will make China incredibly uncomfortable, and it’s also putting pressure on china to come up with alternative that will be attractive to its neighboring countries while also serving its own country interest.

As President Donald Trump ended the United States Participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a huge trade pact five years in making among countries representing 40% of the world economy. President Donald Trump removed the United States from participating his first day in office. Japanese told the "Financial Times" that Tokyo is ready to carry the TPP forward in the same form it was in when Donald Trump killed it. Japanese trade officials said "We will start talks on an eleven-member TPP, minus the US."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-japan-china-globalization.html

Plans to Move Ahead Without the U.S.A.

When President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP agreement almost immediatly after he took office, the world was not sure how the TPP would proceed, or if it could. However, the 11 other countries involved are looking at how they can move forward without the U.S. This push forward has been taken over by Japan, and recently had a meeting with the 10 other countries on how they could proceed with the U.S. powerhouse. The countries came together and started creating a new trade agreement, one that could work without the U.S. involvement.

In July of 2017, Japan and the EU met in Hamburg, Germany to create an outline of a broad trade agreement that could create $20 trillion in economic output. Japan and the other 10 countries involved will need to recreate the TPP to be able to bring it in effect. Currently, six countries that represent 85% of the worlds economic value of the 12 original members need to be on board for it to pass. Without the U.S. involved, it will not be possible. The world will keep watching and waiting to see how the other countries can come together to re-form the TPP.

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-japan-china-globalization.html

Why did President Trump back out of TPP?

Former President Barack Obama was the one who initiated for the U.S. to join the TPP, but on President Trump’s first day in office he signed an order stating that the U.S. was to be removed from the partnership. He declared an end to the era of multinational trade agreements. What they’ve done with their choice to withdraw from the partnership is to give them an incentive for diversifying their trading partners. In hopes that the diversifying will make them find their own way to start conversations and have negotiations that the U.S. will not participate in. However, removing the U.S. from the TPP increases doubt among the United States’ allies about how reliable the U.S. is across an array of overseas and financial matters. This removal marks the first time the U.S. has backed out from an agreement it supported. President Trump has changed the U.S. trade policy by insisting he will only negotiate trade deals with specific allies. It is to be determined how the administration will put the strategy into place and how to utilize it. The U.S. had tried bilateral agreements in the past, but they were slow to progress and some of the negotiations had to be abandoned which resulted in a shift to multinational agreements.

Source: (Solís, 2017)
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/unpacked/2017/03/24/trump-withdrawing-from-the-trans-pacific-partnership/

what was the TPP designed to do?

Not a lot of people know what TPP stands for. TPP also known as Trans-Pacific Partnership are twelve countries that border the pacific ocean TPP is expected to eliminate tariffs on goods and service. So how big is the TPP? The twelve countries include, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and Of course the U.S.. These 12 countries the Biggest and fastest growing commercial partners, It counted for 1.5 trillion worth of trade in goods in 2012 and $242 billion worth service in 2011, it also Makes up roughly 40% of the world’s economic output.

http://www.speaker.gov/general/myth-vs-fact-setting-record-straight-trade-promotion-authority

Labor Standards in the TPP

The United States Trade Representative has said the Trans Pacific Partnership has “the strongest protections for workers of any trade agreement in history”. The TPP states that all 12 nations recognize the laws regarding the International Labor Organization’s essential labor practices and rights and implement them.  The TPP relies on the political drive of the United States to enforce the labor standards they set out. In addition, the TPP requires that all nations have laws governing minimum wages, scheduled work hours, and work-related safety and health to all employees. States cannot waive these laws especially in places where there is a higher risk of labor complications.  The TPP parties must settle labor disagreements the same way they would settle commercial arguments, which includes the likelihood of trade agreements as an answer. However, TPP does not care about what the extent of those laws are, just as long that there is something in place. This means that the minimum wage, scheduled work hours, and work-related safety and health obligations of the TPP are not meaningful. So, a maximum of 100 work hours and a minimum wage of $1 a day would both satisfy the TPP requirements.  Labor standards depend on each country and how they interpret those requirements. In free trade agreements, only a government can solve a dispute settlement against another government for not following FTA labor protections. Being that the TPP has a free trade agreement, it restricts dispute settlements of work issues to party states’ governments. Only the United States government can raise a labor disagreement against another party state, not any individual or organization within the U.S. This leads one to believe that perhaps the TPP does not take its labor requirements as seriously as they should.

Source: (Dong, 2016)

https://onlabor.org/enforcing-labor-standards-under-the-trans-pacific-partnership/

What industries are effected by the TPP? And how are they effected?

Many industries are effected by the TPP. The TPP involves more than 40% of the world's economy. However; like any major trade deal, there are industries that would both suffer and excel if the new deal goes into effect.

Automotive Industry:

Japan is one of the world's largest car manufacturer's. If this deal is implemented, it could help grow their industry. They would be able to have cheaper access to getting products into the U.S. The U.S. automotive industry could also grow in their exports, because the high tariffs they are paying to get into countries such as Vietnam, would be eliminated.

Agriculture industy:

Farmer would benefit from the TPP.  Currently; depending on the type of food, their products can be taxed as much as 30%-40%. The TPP would eliminate the tax on exporting this food.

Local Industries:

Many industries in the US are worried that with such a cut in export taxes, it would take away a lot of business in developed nations such as the US and Japan. The TPP makes it easier for companies to do business overseas, and with the increase in competition, it may make it hard for some industries to stay in the US.

It is predicted to help underdeveloped nations, as companies would start moving factories into lower wage areas.

Tech industry:

Companies such as Google and Uber would see a cut in restrictions removed on sales in foreign markets, as well as requirements that they need to establish infrastructure. This would make it easier for them to conduct business in foreign nations, and increase the amount of competition. Although competition is good, it is possible that these industry giants would take out a lot of local competition in other countries.

Source:

(Naidu-Ghelani, 2015)

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34451423

How did the TPP start?

The TPP can be traced all the way from 2003 with a three party trade bloc between New Zealand, Singapore, and Chili. Brunei was added to the deal in 2005, making the TPP a four party trade bloc.  However; in 2008,the United States decided to join in on the new agreement. This opened an expansion of the membership. The United States joined the TPP to help U.S. businesses compete in the Asia-Pacific region. There was a lot of opposition when the United States joined the TPP. The opposition claimed that the United States would take over the trade in those regions by joining this partnership, and make it much harder for the original countries involved to compete in trade. Once the United States became a member, they soon sent out invitations to Australia, Vietnam, and Peru. Today, the TPP is made up of twelve nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chili, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The TPP has not yet gone into effect. Later, we'll be talking about the current problems the agreement is facing, and what the future may hold for the TPP.

Source:

(Rajamoorthy, 2013)

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-origins-and-evolution-of-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp/5357495

Welcome to the Trans Pacific Partnership blog. This blog will cover how the TPP started, and how it is progressing in development.