Trump’s Worst Trade Mistake
Withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was the most boneheaded U.S. policy move of the last decade.
Withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “the most boneheaded U.S. policy move of the last decade,” said Scott Lincicome. The 2008 free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations was a political lightning rod. But since former President Donald Trump abandoned TPP on his first day in office, “we’ve unfortunately re-learned why people supported TPP in the first place.” The rest of the TPP parties “moved on without us and inked” their own trade agreement, cutting the U.S. off from increasing trade with “large, up-and-coming Vietnam and Malaysia.” China grabbed the chance to forge its own regional trade deal, offering improved access to its vast market. This has increased China’s influence in the region while reducing the “obvious enticement with which Washington can sway other countries toward adopting its preferred set of trading rules and standards.” President Biden’s recent trip to Asia established the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity” (IPEF) with 12 other countries, but while the details are fuzzy, it is clear what IPEF won’t be: a trade agreement. Biden’s trade officials are reportedly too “haunted” by the lashing TPP took to bring back anything similar. As a result, we’ll be “competing for influence with China with one hand tied behind our back.”