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TPP Report Doesn’t Show Why Deal is Good for Workers
Support for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is in the tank. More and more elected officials across the political spectrum are raising doubts about the proposed trade deal. But that isn’t stopping the pact’s strongest supporters from forging ahead.
Late last week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker released a report that for the umpteenth time attempted to make an argument for why American businesses should support this ruinous Pacific Rim agreement. She stressed it would improve global competitiveness by lower tariffs and create more good-paying jobs in this country.
Of course, there are plenty of numbers that show otherwise. The claim, for example, that passage of the TPP would create a tax cut for some 18,000 U.S.-made products is not the case. Analysis by Global Trade Watch found it would affect less than 9,000 and even that doesn’t mean there would be an increase in American exports or jobs because of it.
Meanwhile, stating that incomes will rise due to TPP is equally dubious. A Tufts University report earlier this year questions such economic growth. “We find negative effects on growth in the United States and in Japan,” it stated. “We also find increasing inequality and job losses in all participating economies. Overall, we project the loss of 770,000 jobs, with the largest losses occurring in the United States.”
The Teamsters and other fair trade advocates have long argued that the only thing likely to come out of approval of the TPP will be greater trade deficits. That’s what has happened in Korea under the U.S.-Korea Trade Agreement and that is what will certainly happen here when cheaper goods are made overseas and shipped back to this country.
Luckily, more and more lawmakers in both parties are hearing the message. They are pushing back on this deal because they realize it is not good for the American people or this country’s economy. The Teamsters applaud them and will remain resolute in fighting to stop the TPP while sticking up for workers.