I write about trade, specifically the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
We are developing trade negotiations with China with only one form of leverage, "tariffs," at the expense of the American people in the form of (taxation without representation) because neither our Congress nor our people voted for these tax increases. The current administration looks at every trade problem as if it were a nail and thinks its only solution is a hammer: tariffs.
Guess how their trying to solve them?
Leverage is how you move large problems like unfair trade. The current administration gave away a large portion of its leverage when it backed out of the TPP trade agreement in 2017. The agreement was signed by the following nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
I know the current administration wanted to bust that trade agreement and use the tariff hammer on each one separately to extort favorable trade agreements without regard to strategic military alliances. The TPP agreement must be looked at in terms of strategic leverage as well as leverage in trade negotiations.
This administration must start to look at TPP in a broader context.
James P. Gann
U.S. Army Retired
Pineville, Mo.
Editorial on 08/09/2018