Trump Proposes Rejoining Trans-Pacific Partnership (nytimes.com)

According to The New York Times, "President Trump told a gathering of farm state lawmakers and governors on Thursday morning that he was directing his advisers to look into rejoining the multicountry trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source)." The TPP was a contentious issue during the 2016 presidential election as both Democrats and Republicans attacked it. After signaling during the election that he would pull out of the trade deal "on day one" of his presidency, Trump followed through with his plans. From the report: Rejoining the 11-country pact could be a significant change in fortune for many American industries that stood to benefit from the trade agreement's favorable terms and Republican lawmakers who supported the pact. The deal, which was negotiated by the Obama administration, was largely viewed as a tool to prod China into making the type of economic reforms that the United States and others have long wanted. Both Democrats and Republicans attacked the deal during the president campaign, but many business leaders were disappointed when Mr. Trump withdrew from the agreement, arguing that the United States would end up with less favorable terms attempting to broker an array of individual trade pacts and that scrapping the deal would empower China.

Mr. Trump's decision to reconsider the deal comes as the White House tries to find ways to protect the agriculture sector, which could be badly damaged by the president's trade approach. The risk of an escalating trade war with China has panicked American farmers and ranchers, who send many of their products abroad. China has responded to Mr. Trump's threat of tariffs on as much as $150 billion worth of Chinese goods by placing its own tariffs on American pork, and threatening taxes on soybeans, sorghum, corn and beef. Many American agriculturalists maintain that the easiest way to help them is to avoid a trade war with China in the first place. And many economists say the best way to combat a rising China and pressure it to open its market is through multilateral trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which create favorable trading terms for participants.

Comments

Close to the edge

[PopeRatzo]

I'm liking the new completely unhinged, pants-shitting crazy Donald Trump. It's like watching John Belushi's last films. You knew he wasn't going to last much longer, and nothing could be done to save him from himself, but it was going to be an entertaining ride down to the end.

For example, yesterday Trump tweeted out this:

"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"

"Get ready Russia" is not something you want to hear Trump saying in the context of "nice and new and "smart"" missiles".

So, today, of course, he said:

"Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”"

Wait, what? Dude, you literally said, "the missiles are coming". WTF? And a few hours before that,

"Big show tonight on @seanhannity! 9:00 P.M. on @FoxNews"

So now the President of the United States is cutting promos for Hannity.

This is just the best.

Re:Trans pacific nations should say 'no'.

[Anonymous Coward]

The sad thing (So... Sad...) is that it took Trump getting fucked by China before he ran cowering back to the TPP

That wasn't why he said he was against TPP

[rsilvergun]

it was bad for workers, and Trump ran on a pro worker campaign. It'll lead to more outsourcing, which was his #1 issue.