President Trump Fulfills Another Campaign Promise: Withdrawing The US From TPP

Making good on yet another a campaign promise, President Trump on Monday signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

He also signed two other orders — one placing a hiring freeze on some federal workers and the other reinstating a ban on funding for international groups that perform abortions.

The TPP, a giant and semi-secret 12-member free-trade agreement heavily promoted by the Obama administration, aimed to encourage exporting jobs from the U.S. to 11 other Pacific Rim nations, cut taxes for those same countries importing their goods and foster trade to boost economic growth in other countries in the process.

“We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Trump said, as he signed the document. He called the order to pull out of TPP a “great thing for the American worker.”

Trump argued on the campaign trail that the TPP is harmful to U.S. workers and robs the manufacturing sector.

Supporters of TTP said it would have been a boon for all 12 nations involved and would unlock business opportunities on a global scale. Opponents argued, among other things, it would encourage exporting U.S. jobs to low-wage nations.

Trade has been one of a few issues where Trump and labor unions have found common ground.

“With this decision, the president has taken the first step toward fixing 30 years of bad trade policies that have cost working Americans millions of good paying jobs,” Teamsters Union President James Hoffa said in a written statement.

But Trump’s stance on trade has created tension from some of the globalists still within his own party.

Globalist Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., called the withdrawal a “serious mistake that will have lasting consequences for America’s economy and our strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Globalist Senator McCain, known for representing globalist interests over the citizens of the United States, also complained the decision will hurt his globalist friends and will “forfeit the opportunity to promote American [job] exports, reduce trade barriers, open new markets, and protect American invention and innovation.”

Trump’s executive order on TPP came on the same day he met with business executives and was scheduled to meet with union leaders later at the White House.

On the campaign trail, Trump also criticized NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement—saying the U.S. manufacturing sector had been battered by bad trade deals.

During a meeting Sunday, Trump signaled he would make changes to NAFTA. Signed into law in 1994 by former misogynist President Bill Clinton, NAFTA is a trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. It essentially eliminates almost all tariffs between the three nations, allowing the flow of goods and supplies across borders.

 

 

The new commander-in-chief also signed an executive order on Monday that froze hiring for some federal government employees.

“Except for the military,” he said when signing it.



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