The full language of the be released for a few weeks, but it’s still very good news that a final agreement has been reached.
Moreover, most elements of the accord, which involves 12 nations that account for 40 percent of the world’s economy, are already known in broad outline — which is why anti-trade populists on the left and right have been railing against it for months.
They seem to have forgotten the indispensable role expanding trade has had in the growth of prosperity over this nation’s history. And they seem oblivious to the fact that many of the parties to the agreement, such as Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia, have in place far more barriers to U.S. exports than we have barriers to their goods.
Indeed, the Office of the United States Trade Representative maintains, that the partnership “eventually would end more than 18,000 tariffs that the participating countries have placed on United States exports.”
Sounds like the deal could be a boon to the U.S. economy. At the very least, the anti-trade claque ought to give it a fair hearing.
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