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Trump: I'll Ditch TPP Trade Deal on Day One of My Presidency (arstechnica.com)

US President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed that the U.S. will pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- a trade deal involving 12 Pacific Rim nations -- "on day one" of his presidency. From a report on ArsTechnica: Trump, in a YouTube video outlining plans for his first 100 days in office, said: "I'm going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country." He added: "Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back on to American shores." An emphasis on bilateral trade deals may call into question both the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), involving dozens of nations, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Although the latter is between the US and the European Union, the complex political structure of the EU means that effectively 28 nations are involved and can influence the outcome of the deal. This was demonstrated by the dramatic intervention of the Walloon regional government in the signing of CETA, the bloc's trade deal with Canada.

18 of 600 comments (clear)

  1. False decisiveness. by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would plan for a lot of this sort of thing from him. False shows of decisiveness. A lot of people seem to think that "doing something" is what a leader does, even if that "something" isn't well thought out or planned.

    He doesn't know how to fix Obamacare but he'll "do something", lol.

    I expect Trump to be worse than his base expects, but better than the melting down, hysterical media and left cries about.

    1. Re:False decisiveness. by snookiex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know if this is false decisiveness, but he has to do something, be it a stunt or not. He's already getting a lot of heat from almost half of the country. He needs to consolidate and keep calm his electoral base at least. Politics, just like economy, is more about emotions than technicalities.

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  2. Hypocrisy at it's finest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    *EVERYONE* here was bitching about TPP until Trump decided to do away with it.

    Because Trump.

    1. Re:Hypocrisy at it's finest by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm not a Trump supporter, but I see this (dumping the TPP) as good news.

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    2. Re:Hypocrisy at it's finest by Tailhook · · Score: 5, Informative

      I haven't yet seen any non Trump supporters lamenting the passing of TTP.

      All that means is that you haven't been paying attention. Please leave this to those of us that are. Thanks so much.

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    3. Re:Hypocrisy at it's finest by FilmedInNoir · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That would be me. I'm a non-Trump supporter. I'm on the middle to left. TPP was extremely bad. Want to protest human rights violations by LG? TPP was bad.
      Want to boycott those lead laced toys from Shanghai? TPP was bad. If you like pirated content, TPP was bad.
      The only people that benefited from TPP were IP holders and large corporations like Walmart and Amazon.
      But bluegutang is right, I'm doubtful if Trump understands why educated members of the left are against TPP. Unless my conspiracy theory holds true and Trump is secretly a Marxist.

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  3. Re: New Trump fan here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What replacement for Obamacare exactly? The one where you pay more and only save by not having medical procedures done?

  4. Why EFF has opposed TPP by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    If there are truly bad aspects to the TPP, then spell those out

    Electronic Frontier Foundation has spelled out the TPP's truly bad aspects in a category of articles on its site.

  5. Congress will ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... not Trump.

    They weren't going to approve it anyway.

    It's like Trump declaring that, on day one, he'll adjust the atmospheric composition to be 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.

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  6. No principles. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For years up to a week ago: TPP is an abomination love child between Hitler and Satan and needs to die.

    Now that Trump doesn't want it: This will ruin the nation and will only benefit China. TPP Must Go Forward!

    1. Re:No principles. by CrankyFool · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know, man. Personally, I absolutely detest Trump and I think that at a social level he's pretty bad for us. Opinions will, of course differ. But I thought the TPP was a terrible deal for the US and that the Democrats pushing it (hello Obama and "I was against it after I was for it" Clinton) were working primarily in the interests of the moneyed elites. Trump's made a bunch of decision since being elected that I don't like (e.g. Bannon, and having his kids in heads-of-state meetings), but him coming out against TPP? Yeah, that's a good one. I appreciate and support that. It's easy, I think, for us to become so partisan that literally everything the other side does is obviously evil. We saw that, I'd argue, with the Republicans and Obama. We can do better than that. I will support and applaud actions that Trump takes that are good, and fight aggressively against the other ones.

    2. Re:No principles. by CrankyFool · · Score: 5, Funny
      It's interesting to me that in response to a relatively conciliatory "measure the policies, not the man" post on my part, you're choosing to find some other approach to find a fight where none exists.

      You want to talk about HRC's "super-predators" comment? Yeah, let's talk about that. I have a Black son. I hate that she made that comment, and I hate that she never even bothered to apologize for it. I found HRC, on a personal level, totally odious. I've said so to other Liberal friends (I do still consider myself a pretty ardent Liberal). And I voted for Sanders, and would have happily voted for him in the General Elections if I had a choice.

      And it's also worth noting that HRC's super-predator comment was made 20 years ago. You can find odious things she's done from this decade :).

      As for Bannon being racist or not ... man, I don't think there's going to be any way to talk about this that will convince you, because you'll find reasons to discount any evidence I throw at you. I think that if Bannon were to personally lynch some Jews you'd probably argue that it wasn't that he hates Jews, it's just that those guys happened to have ripped him off. But here's a link for other people who are interested in making up their own mind:

      http://www.motherjones.com/kev...

      (Yes, that's his ex-wife talking, so obviously she's biased; and yes, that's Mother Jones, which is obviously biased. You'll be able to discount anyone who disagrees with you as obviously biased. Enjoy your bubble).

  7. Re:I'm confused by meta-monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Neoconservatives are pro-globalization. Traditional conservatives are anti-globalism, pro-nationalism. Whatever Trump is, he's an economic nationalist, so he gets the support of traditional conservatives, like the Tea Party voters (note this is distinct from how the Tea Party candidates like Rubio got co-opted into the Neocon establishment. The story of the Tea Party is voters worker their asses off to get "their" people into office in 2010 - 2014 only to be met with immediate betrayal, resulting in the seething, frothing anger that enabled Trump).

    Hopefully with the election of Trump and the destruction of the Republican and Democrat establishments we can relegate neoconservatism to the ash heap of history, along with the worst of leftist identity politics.

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  8. Do you now realize why Trump won? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bernie Sanders' supporter here. I didn't vote on Nov. 8th, because I simply couldn't back a lobbyist like Clinton. By killing the TPP, and maybe also TiSA and TTIP, Trump has just taken the most progressive political choice in the last 40 years, it's the first real reversal of the globalization process, something unthinkable until a few years ago. Clinton would have surely "renegotiated" the TPP, and after few useless and cosmetic changes, passed it. After all, it was "the gold standard" for her. Obama himself wanted it, and he's technically supposed to be more progressive than Clinton.

    Surely I don't like many of Trump's proposals (slash taxes also for the rich, "clean" coal...), but on trade he could be the most "leftist" president in decades.

    Instead of complaining, next time choose the right candidate at the Democratic primaries.

    1. Re:Do you now realize why Trump won? by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Rust Belt had already been in decline for over a decade by the time the WTO agreements were made. And you're forgetting that before WTO was GATT, so it's not like there weren't multilateral trade agreements.

      So I'll ask again, what do you propose to replace it with? Do you wish to have American goods disadvantaged on the international markets? And what if the rest of the world decides to enter multilateral agreements, and larger trading partners like the EU and the Asian nations start throwing up trade barriers to US goods?

      What's more, all those jobs you reference are going to disappear no matter what. Automation is increasingly going to reduce employment, even in those countries where many such jobs have gone. Once again we see how the "anti-globalist" types are little more than naive luddites.

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  9. Eminent public domain by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    Without the TPP, Congress could roll back Hollywood's bought and paid for copyright law changes. For example, Congress could make some of the exemptions from anti-circumvention law pursuant to LoC's triennial rulemaking permanent. Or it could expand compulsory licenses for orphan works. Or it could establish an "Eminent Public Domain" program that allows free use of a work of authorship while compensating its author, by estimating a copyright's fair market value and letting the people crowdfund a "taking" pursuant to the Fifth Amendment.

    But with the TPP, Congress's hands would be tied.

  10. Trump's not really changing anything by Jodka · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well Trump is throwing out one prospective trade deal and substituting other prospective trade deals without actually modifying current trade relations in any way. So this looks like a prima facie attempt to honor a campaign promise without, in fact, making a change. Either his anti-trade campaign messages were empty demagogic promises or his new Republican allies educated him on trade.

    The latter would be a good thing. People's intuitions about trade are often mistaken:

    - They believe that employment is zero sum, that is, that the total number of jobs is fixed, so that if a foreigner gains a job, a U.S. citizen must necessarily lose a job. This is incorrect. Foreigners to not "steal" jobs from Americans. In fact, global employment levels can and do fluctuate.

    - They overlook that every producer is also a consumer. If you are employed and make something and sell it, you then have an income with which to purchase goods and services produced by others. As with employment, global production and consumption are variable, not fixed. The more people work, the more goods there are to go around. "Getting rid of those foreign slackers," is just as disdainful of others as "Those damn foreigners are stealing our jobs," but, pragmatically, is more likely to lead to socially beneficial policy outcomes. Consider improvements in the quality of life and reduction in our tax burden if Africans had productive jobs instead instead of relying on the industrialized world to support them with foreign aid.

    - They are unaware of the law of comparative advantage, which tells us that both those with an absolute advantage and those with an absolute disadvantage benefit from trade. The naive and incorrect assumption is that those producers with an absolute advantage displace all others.

    - They forget that trade is an exchange. They give us stuff and we give them stuff in exchange. To give them stuff, we have to have stuff to give them. Who makes that stuff? Employees. You can not trade goods without having domestic employees to manufacture the goods which you produce to trade.

    - They are unaware of the balance of payments and fear that all the money will end up abroad. Foreigners hoarding cash is a benefit to the U.S., because when foreigners hoard U.S. dollars they give us cars, televisions, and computers and all we have given them in trade is little pieces of paper with drawings of our presidents. Less that beneficial-to-us cash hoarding, over time all purchases are reciprocated, so that for every sale to the United States by a foreign entity there is a sale to the foreign entity by from the U.S. There has to be, because when we buy something from a foreign nation the foreigners are left holding U.S. cash which is only of value if spent in the U.S., or traded to someone else. That someone else can only exchange U.S. cash with others or redeem it for U.S. goods. If it is traded abroad perpetually and never redeemed, that is cash hoarding and we benefit.

       

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  11. Re: Great for China! by Jhon · · Score: 5, Informative

    "uh... remember the Great Recession under Bush?"

    That recession was going to happen no matter what. And guess what -- It was predicted by the Anderson Forecast in 2000. Guess who's administration that was under? Wasn't Bush.

    http://www.uclaforecast.com/co...

    The UCLA Anderson Forecasters first raised eyebrows with a recession forecast one year ago (December 2000), at a time when such a pessimistic view was deemed at best, premature and at worse, wrong, by other national forecasters.

    The US was already heading down the recession path when 9/11 happened a year later. That was a HUGE blow to our economy.

    " and now that economic growth is going well, unemployment is down, inflation is nil, people vote to go back to that"

    What's the rate of underemployed? What's the number of people who are no longer being COUNTED as unemployed? They didn't vote to go back to that -- they voted because they are hurting and the last 8 years did nothing to fix their hurt.

    I'm not saying Trump is the answer -- I honestly don't know who was worse -- Trump or Clinton (I voted for neither) but your blinders are not really helping you see reality. You might want to lift them off a bit and take a peek.