KAULA LUMPUR: The Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest regional trade accord in history, would set new terms for trade and business investment among the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations a far-flung group with an annual gross domestic product of nearly $28 trillion that represents roughly 40 percent of global G.D.P. and one-third of world trade.
But the agreement, which requires the approval of Congress, has become a flashpoint in the United States presidential campaign, opposed by the nominees of both major parties as a symbol of failed globalism and the loss of United States jobs overseas.
The product of years of negotiations that culminated last fall with the endorsement of the 12 nations’ trade chiefs, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a hallmark victory for President Obama, who has pushed for a foreign policy “pivot” to the Pacific rim. It seeks to bind Pacific nations closer through lower tariffs while also serving as a buttress against China’s growing regional influence. An independent study said that it would raise incomes and exports in the United States, but not jobs over all.
Many Democrats in Congress have voiced skepticism over the benefits. And opposition to the pact became a popular rallying cry in stump speeches by both Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, who has promised to tear up the deal, and Bernie Sanders, who argued during the Democratic presidential primaries that it would lead to a loss of jobs and competitive wages.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, supported the emerging Trans-Pacific Partnership as secretary of state, but during the primary race, soon after the accord was concluded, she said it did not sufficiently protect American jobs.
Supporters of the deal in the administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, realizing that prospects for passage would dim whoever wins the presidency, are holding out hope for a vote during the lame-duck session after the election.
The pact is seen as a means of addressing a number of festering issues that have become stumbling blocks as global trade has soared, including e-commerce, financial services and cross-border internet communications.
There are also traditional trade issues involved. The United States is eager to establish formal trade agreements with five of the nations involved — Japan, Malaysia, Brunei, New Zealand and Vietnam — and to strengthen Nafta, its current agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Moreover, as efforts at global trade deals have faltered (such as the World Trade Organization’s Doha round), the Trans-Pacific Partnership is billed as an “open architecture” document written to ease adoption by additional Asian nations, and to provide a potential template to other initiatives underway, like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
