Trans-Pacific Partnership (Wiki Page)
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Abstract
Summary
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a global trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam negotiated and presented to Congress by President Obama in 2016.[1] The agreement aims to bolster and support small and medium sized American businesses in the global economy by increasing exports of Made-in-America products and ensuring higher paying domestic jobs. Huge emphasis has been placed on securing the position of American ranchers, farmers, and manufacturers. In order to access and thrive in Asia-Pacific markets, the TPP eliminates “over 18,000 taxes that various countries impose on Made-in-America exports.” [2] The US also benefits from the agreement by ensuring: strong and enforceable worker protections, environmental protection standards, regulated expansion of digital commerce, free digital exchange of innovation and information, reducing dominance of state sponsored or funded companies, and entry into service industries overseas, previously blocked by discriminatory regulations. Proposed labor standards include reducing discriminatory practices in the workplace, strengthening safety practices, and enforcing trade sanctions on any country violating the workers’ rights. Similar trade sanctions are included for neglecting the environmental standards. [3]
Supporters of the TPP believe in its ability to help the world progress towards gender equality in industry, prevent over-exploitation of natural resources, create new jobs, and establish healthy economic relationships with developing countries [4]. However, critics have lodged complaints about the details of the agreement including the procedure in place for handling international lawsuits. The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) calls for a body of the United Nations or the World Bank to oversee international trade litigation. Both conservatives and liberals fear that systematizing the ISDS in the agreement will make “U.S. laws and regulations” more vulnerable to lawsuits by foreign companies.[5]
Small Business
Protecting Intellectual Property and Innovation
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative states that approximately 40 million jobs are created by sectors of the American economy driven by the development of intellectual property (IP), thereby making IP protection a primary goal in the worldwide trade agreement. During negotiations the US worked towards leveling the playing field for businesses exporting “IP-intensive products and services” by protecting patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets and eliminating channels for pirated or counterfeited goods. The agreement was intended to increase innovation and access to advances in science, medicine, and technology both by competitors and consumers. [6] The resulting agreement intends to accomplish these goals by promoting digital commerce and freedom. American leadership in e-commerce, or Internet-based transactions, gives America the ability to head the development of regulations that will reduce barriers to trade and censorship. Countries can no longer require U.S. businesses to transfer “their data, servers, research facilities, and other necessities overseas in order to access those markets.” [7]
