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  • Today were going to take a look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership, potentially the

  • largest trade deal in history, also known as the TPP. There are so many little points

  • to negotiate that talks have been ongoing for over ten years. The 12 countries involved

  • are looking to strengthen their economies by linking them together. And theyre already

  • pretty strong, accounting for a combined 40% of global GDP.

  • If it goes into full effect, it will build on and supersede a network of past trade deals,

  • like the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

  • Trade between nations will be boosted by eliminating many tariffs and other methods countries often

  • use to protect domestic industries from outside competition. Examples of protected markets

  • are beef and cars in Japan, the dairy and sugar industries in the United States, and

  • state-owned enterprises like Chile’s largest copper company and the Vietnamese telecommunication service.

  • Along with eliminating barriers to trade, to create a fair playing field for competing

  • businesses, all countries involved will have to meet certain negotiated standards, like

  • environmental protections that ban trading in endangered species and illegal logging,

  • or enhanced labor standards like the right to form a union, the abolition of child labor,

  • and banning workplace discrimination.

  • The Obama administration is incentivizing governments to create more responsible social

  • policies in exchange for stronger economic ties with America and some of its closest

  • trading partners.

  • At home, Obama has received pushback from Democrats in Congress concerned the deal would

  • be bad for American workers. They want guarantees the US will enforce rules preventing foreign

  • companies from flooding the US market with goods and services that undercut products

  • made in the goodole USofA.

  • Another big criticism is that certain proposed patent and copyright rules in the deal could

  • keep the cost of medicine around the world higher than it should be.

  • Some say the North American agreement negotiated by President Clinton resulted in the loss

  • of hundreds of thousands of American jobs. That may be true, but in the six years after

  • NAFTA was enacted, the United States created 2 million jobs each year. It seems NAFTA helped

  • retool the US economy to produce more higher value goods and services, and that the TPP

  • would continue this trend.

  • And by opening new international markets to service and high tech businesses in the United

  • States, already a huge source of private job growth in the US economy should see even

  • more expansion.

  • Projections have the TPP increasing American economic output by more than 100 billion dollars

  • a year. But more money, more problems. One of the biggest challenges has been to make sure

  • income gains through globalization are spread to all Americans, instead of the top, investing

  • class.

  • The elephant in the room of this is China, which isn’t involved in the talks. That’s

  • because one of the main objectives of the deal is to offset the power of China by strengthening

  • North America’s connection to several of China’s neighbors.

  • The deal has been crafted in a way to eventually include others like South Korea, Indonesia,

  • and the Philippines, Taiwan, Laos, Columbia and Thailand.

  • But until then, an initial agreement still must be finalized among the first 12 countries

  • involved, with the legislature of each country needing to pass a vote to accept the TPP’s

  • terms and ratify their membership.

  • If successful, a TransAtlantic Partnership with the Europeans would follow. That could

  • boost US-EU trade by more than 50%.

  • Thanks for watching. If you learned a bit about the TPP, hit that like button to help

  • share this video with others like you.

  • You can watch more TDC such as our ranking of the 10 best presidents in American history

  • or our video comparing the Parliamentary and Presidential forms of government.

  • And if you want to learn a lot more about economics and wealth inequality around the

  • world, a great place to start would be with the audiobookCapital in the Twenty-First

  • Century,” by economist Thomas Piketty. Follow the link below to download this book for free

  • by signing up for a 30-trial at Audible.com.

  • Until next time, for TDC, I’m Bryce Plank. This video was edited by Brendan Plank.

Today were going to take a look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership, potentially the

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