NAFTA Leaders Meet to Wring Hands Over the TPP

by Crista Huff

 

President Obama met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the North American Leaders Summit in Ottawa, Ontario yesterday.

Considering that the three countries are trading partners within the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, it was important for President Obama to reassure his counterparts in national leadership that these trade agreements are not in danger of being nullified by Congress, nor by POTUS candidates.

World leaders have legitimate reasons to fear a Congressional “NO” vote on TPP ratification — a vote that’s currently planned for this year’s lame duck session of Congress. All major POTUS candidates have expressed opposition to the trade agreement. The frustration of the citizenry in the U.K. with its political leadership, as reflected in last week’s Brexit vote, has only served to embolden anti-TPP factions.

President Obama made sure to twist the anti-TPP point of view, to make it sound economically foolish, saying, “The prescription of withdrawing from trade deals and focusing solely on your local market, that’s the wrong medicine.”

Clearly, no rational person is proposing that the U.S. stop international commerce. Instead, people who oppose the TPP are concerned about the many destructive facets of the TPP, including its sovereignty giveaway, its lack of barriers to unfair trade practices, and the chronic history of U.S. job loss that’s directly related to past free trade agreements.

Ironically, the President himself concurred, “What we have seen are trend lines of growing inequality and stagnant wages and a smaller share of growth going to workers and a larger portion going to the top,” Obama said. “That’s a real problem.” Yes sir, it’s a real problem. That’s why Americans want our elected officials to stop pursuing failed economic policies, and instead fix them! We want economic growth! We want jobs! We want an expansion of the middle class!

Obama, Nieto, Trudeau and leaders of TPP partner countries around the globe are rightfully worried that Donald Trump, with the backing of the American people, might stop pursuing failed trade policies.

Three pro-TPP organizations — the World Bank, the Peterson Institute, and the U.S. International Trade Commission — produced best-case scenario analyses of the TPP this year.  The reports assumed full employment, and no unfair trade practices (currency manipulation, illegal dumping, below-market loans to industry, etc.), yet resulted in virtually no U.S. economic growth over the next 15 years! The question begs to be asked, “Why is the U.S. contemplating signing on to the TPP?”

Here’s a detailed list of Trump’s intentions on how to fix unfair trade practices, including his willingness to withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA, if push comes to shove. Article 2205 of NAFTA says that any participating country can withdraw from the trade agreement with six months’ written notice.

Stay tuned for more updates on the TPP as it winds its way through Congress in 2016!

 

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Crista Huff is a stock market expert and a conservative political activist. She is the Chief Analyst at Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor; owner/operator of Goodfellow LLC, an outperforming stock market website; and she works with End Global Governance and issues groups to defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Send questions and comments to research@goodfellowllc.com.

 

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