The multilateral trade agreement known as the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), is a massive pacific rim trade agreement favored by Wall Street, the US Chamber of Commerce, Club for Growth, Ron DeSantis (voted to approve) and now candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
President Trump famously took the U.S. out of the TPP agreement around the same time he took us out of the Paris Climate Agreement. As noted by President Trump and his economic team at the time, Free Trade Agreements (FTA’s) are beneficial to the USA when they are bilateral between the U.S. and another singular nation. Multinational trade agreements end up serving the interests of the least common denominator nation and are detrimental in their finished outcome to U.S. consumers.
Wall Street loves multinational trade agreements because they provide greater flexibility for the profit opportunities of global corporations, multinational corporations and banks. However, Main Street USA suffers from lost manufacturing jobs, lowered overall wages, and cheap imported durable goods that are an outcome of the lowest cost manufacturing priority.
During a Twitter spaces discussion yesterday presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he was in favor of reengaging the U.S. in the TPP trade agreement. This is a non-starter for any America First economic platform.
“I think we should re-enter it,” Ramaswamy said to Musk about 94 minutes into the conversation on Twitter. “I think this is a little bit different than what, you know, the course of action taken by Trump in exiting the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership]. I think that was actually a poor decision.” (link)
This should be a disqualifying position for any consideration in the Trump administration.
Flashback – November 2016