President Trump often says our trade partners treat us unfairly. Yet one of his first acts as president was to withdraw from a trade pact agreement designed to give favored treatment to its signatories. On Dec. 30, 2018, that pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (known as TPP), went into effect without the United States. The TPP is a free trade agreement negotiated by the Obama administration that would have allowed the United States to participate in a free-trade zone with several countries, including Canada, Japan, Mexico, and several others. TPP had critics on both sides of the aisle, but it offered an extended free-trade zone and was part of an Obama administration effort to counter Chinese economic influence. Read more…

Last modified: February 27, 2019