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The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Explained

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Language: en

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Today we’re going to take a look at the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, potentially the
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largest trade deal in history, also known
as the TPP.
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There are so many little points to negotiate
that talks have been ongoing for over ten
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years.
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The 12 countries involved are looking to strengthen
their economies by linking them together.
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And they’re already pretty strong, accounting
for a combined 40% of global GDP.
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If it goes into full effect, it will build
on and supersede a network of past trade deals,
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like the North American Free Trade Agreement
between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
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MEDIA: WP - Fig. 2
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Trade between nations will be boosted by eliminating
many tariffs and other methods countries often
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use to protect domestic industries from outside
competition.
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Examples of protected markets are beef and
cars in Japan, the dairy and sugar industries
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in the United States, and state-owned enterprises
like Chile’s largest copper company and
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the Vietnamese telecommunication service.
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Along with eliminating barriers to trade,
to create a fair playing field for competing
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businesses, all countries involved will have
to meet certain negotiated standards, like
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environmental protections that ban trading
in endangered species and illegal logging,
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or enhanced labor standards like the right
to form a union, the abolition of child labor,
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and banning workplace discrimination.
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The Obama administration is incentivizing
governments to create more responsible social
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policies in exchange for stronger economic
ties with America and some of its closest
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trading partners.
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At home, Obama has received pushback from
Democrats in Congress concerned the deal would
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be bad for American workers.
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They want guarantees the US will enforce rules
preventing foreign companies from flooding
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the US market with goods and services that
undercut products made in the good ‘ole
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USofA.
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Another big criticism is that certain proposed
patent and copyright rules in the deal could
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keep the cost of medicine around the world
higher than it should be.
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Some say the North American agreement negotiated
by President Clinton resulted in the loss
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of hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
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That may be true, but in the six years after
NAFTA was enacted, the United States created
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2 million jobs each year.
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It seems NAFTA helped retool the US economy
to produce more higher value goods and services,
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and that the TPP would continue this trend.
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And by opening new international markets to
service and high tech businesses in the United
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States, already a huge source of private job
growth in the US economy should expand even
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more aggressively.
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Projections have the TPP increasing American
economic output by more than 100 billion dollars
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a year.
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But mo money, mo problems.
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One of the biggest challenges has been to
make sure income gains through globalization
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are spread to all Americans, instead of the
top, investing class.
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The elephant in the room in all of this China,
which isn’t involved in the talks.
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That’s because one of the main objectives
of the deal is to offset the power of China
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by strengthening North America’s connection
to several of China’s neighbors.
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The deal has been crafted in a way to eventually
include others like South Korea, Indonesia,
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and the Philippines, Taiwan, Laos, Columbia
and Thailand.
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But until then, an initial agreement still
must be finalized among the first 12 countries
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involved, with the legislature of each country
needing to pass a vote to accept the TPP’s
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terms and ratify their membership.
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If successful, a TransAtlantic Partnership
with the Europeans would follow.
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That could boost US-EU trade by more than
50%.
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Thanks for watching.
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If you learned a bit about the TPP, hit that
like button to help share this video with
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others like you.
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You can watch more TDC such as our ranking
of the 10 best presidents in American history
00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:24.599
or our video comparing the Parliamentary and
Presidential forms of government.
00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:28.439
And if you want to learn a lot more about
economics and wealth inequality around the
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world, a great place to start would be with
the audiobook “Capital in the Twenty-First
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Century,” by economist Thomas Piketty.
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Follow the link below to download this book
for free by signing up for a 30-trial at Audible.com.
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Until next time, for TDC, I’m Bryce Plank.
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This video was edited by Brendan Plank.

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