Barack Obama has campaigned heavily for Congress to ratify the globalist Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
He needed one more “legacy” achievement before exiting the White House.
But with the election of Donald Trump, his globalist trade policies are first up on the chopping block.
Donald Trump made opposing international trade deals that shipped American jobs overseas a central plank of his campaign platform.
He pledged to drop out of the TPP and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Bill Clinton.
Pundits and so-called political “experts” mocked Trump’s “America First” message as engaging the backwards and backwater population.
But on Election Day, Trump carried Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Trump won by driving the working class turnout in large measure to his opposition to Obama’s globalist trade deals.
52/67 PA counties are officially Appalachian. They cast 44% of 2-party vote 2012 & 2016. Romney won by 175k. Trump by 492k.
— Kyle Kondik (@kkondik) November 16, 2016
And now a leaked memo from Trump’s transition team lays out steps his administration will take to dismantle international trade deals that hurt American workers.
CNN reports Trump will begin implementing his “America First” trade reform on day one:
“The 200-day plan is built around five main principles, plus an extra plank on manufacturing jobs. First is renegotiating or withdrawing from NAFTA, second is stopping the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, third is stopping “unfair imports,” fourth is ending “unfair trade practices,” and fifth is pursuing bilateral trade deals. The final focus, to “retain and return manufacturing jobs,” focuses on lowering the business tax rate and eliminating regulations on businesses and restrictions on domestic energy.
The provisions on TPP are almost certainly moot, as congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle say the deal will not come up for ratification in the lame duck congressional session. Trump would then not need to take any action to kill it, because the deal would be effectively dead.
The plan also gives benchmarks for Days 1, 100 and 200 of the Trump administration.”
The Trump transition memo lays out the steps necessary to reform trade.
Congressional leaders are likely to scuttle any vote on the TPP during the lame duck session so it will die without Trump having to take any action.
However, the only reason a vote is being shelved is because Trump won his victory by campaigning against the globalist trade deal.
The memo also lays out the concrete steps President Trump will take to reform NAFTA, including withdrawing from the treaty if his conditions are not met.
Both the Presidents of Canada and Mexico have signaled their willingness to re-examine NAFTA.
Trump was able to rewrite the Electoral College map because of his America First stances on trade, immigration, and foreign policy.
His ability to deliver on those promises will determine whether the Rust Belt states he won over stay in the GOP column.
