Love It or Hate It, When Obama Puts TPP Online It Will Be the Most Transparent Deal Ever

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:47 pm

After five years of negotiations, the Obama administration is putting the finishing touches on what could be a legacy building trade deal, also known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

During a conference call with reporters yesterday, Ambassador Froman said the TPP agreement would be available and posted online probably within 30 days, as they are still working with other countries on the text and then it needs to go to legal for a final review. The Ambassador also said President Obama would give Congress at least 90 days to debate the agreement after it’s posted online before signing it.

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Love it or hate it, this commitment, when fulfilled, will make this the most transparent agreement on record.

The conference call focused on a new report connecting Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) tax cuts with “Made-in-America” exports, and was conducted by Jeff Zients, Director of the National Economic Council, Michael Froman, Ambassador, U.S. Trade Representative and Kevin Selvy, CEO of Crazy Mountain Brewing Company, who highlighted the strengths of the agreement as they see them.

The TPP is a “massive tax cut” for American exports that will help American small businesses by cutting tariffs on American-made products — this was the gist of the call.

Ambassador Froman highlighted what he sees as the agreement’s ability to level the playing field, “The TPP is the largest tax cut on American exports in a generation, slashing nearly 18,000 individual taxes on the products American manufactures make, American farmers grow, and American innovators create… In addition to breaking new ground on a number of issues central to the 21st century economy, TPP levels the playing field for exports stamped with three proud words: ‘Made in America.'”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released a new report “18,000 Tax Cuts on Made-In-America Exports” which details how tax cuts will benefit exports across the country.
Kevin Selvy, CEO of Crazy Mountain Brewing Company, explained that American beer is currently being treated around world as best beer you can get, but they’ve tried to get into markets in and round Malaysia and the tariffs and costs priced them out of the market. He said, “Get rid of the tariffs we become more competitive.”

“Thanks to TPP, instead of being taxed up to 55% in TPP countries, California winemakers will see a tax of 0%. And instead of being taxed as high as 18% in the Asia-Pacific, Louisiana fishermen won’t be taxed at all once the TPP takes effect,” the report explains, noting that 98% of U.S. exporters are small businesses.

Froman suggested that in terms of job creation, exports support 11.7 million jobs today and that will grow and be a good thing for American workers as companies that exports pay up to 18% more.

The report details this:

The connection between increasing U.S. exports and supporting more good U.S. jobs is strong. We know that companies that export tend to grow faster, hire more employees, and pay higher salaries—up to 18% more than non-export related jobs. But in too many cases, taxes on American exports are holding our workers back from those higher wages. Some estimates have shown that wages in manufacturing industries could be up to 12% higher if we were to eliminate foreign taxes on U.S. exports.

Later in the report:

Last year, American workers, farmers, and businesses sold a record-high $2.34 trillion of exports to other countries—making 2014 the fifth straight year in which the United States broke a new record for exports. 11.7 million American jobs are now supported by those exports—jobs that pay up to 18% more on average than jobs that aren’t related to exports.

Democrats are understandable wary about the just finished negotiations on the Obama administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), after feeling burned by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Add to that the objections of liberal powerhouses like Senator Elizabeth Warren and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders, and liberals are already pretty sure they don’t like it and can’t trust it. Yesterday 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also signaled her opposition to TPP, based on what she knows at this time, though previously she had supported it.

“Fundamentally what these trade agreements have done is encouraged companies to follow business plans, which were sort of unknown until 20 years ago, where you shut down production in Steubenville or Toledo and move it to Wuhan or Mexico City and sell the products back into the United States,” Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown explained to TIME back in April.

That is one of the biggest criticisms and fears about TPP, that it will mean even less jobs and be a giveaway of sorts to multinational corporations. We need that like we need a hole in the head. It’s important to note that, in spite of the criticism, no one has actually read the final TPP agreement yet.

The Obama administration obviously thinks this is a good deal and they’re pushing it hard. President Obama just hosted the first ever White House Summit on Worker Voices yesterday, in addition to his relentless push for better pay and benefits for workers, so the presumption that he doesn’t care about workers is hard to buy. But NAFTA.

Caution is the order of the day — after all, there are corporate puppet Republicans supporting TPP (what’s not to like for them, say 18,000 tax breaks five times while clicking your heels together) and this always alarms Democrats who care about workers. Perhaps solace can be found in the fact that the Tea Party opposes TPP.

In 30 days, everyone in Congress will have access to every detail of this agreement. If nothing else, this transparency and commitment to informed debate is to be commended.

Image: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative report

Sarah Jones

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