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Trump Proposes Rejoining Trans-Pacific Partnership
President Trump, in a surprising reversal, told a gathering of farm state lawmakers and governors on Thursday morning that he was directing his advisers to look into rejoining the multicountry trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal he pulled out of within days of assuming the presidency.
Rejoining the 11-country pact could be a sharp reversal of fortune for many American industries that stood to benefit from the trade agreement's favorable terms and Republican lawmakers who supported the pact. The deal, which was initiated by the Obama administration, was largely viewed as a tool to prod China into making the type of economic reforms that the United States and others have long wanted.
Both Democrats and Republicans attacked the deal during the president campaign, but many business leaders were disappointed when Mr. Trump withdrew from agreement, arguing that the United States would end up with less favorable terms attempting to broker an array of individual trade pacts and that scrapping the deal would empower China.
Republicans in Congress have also been skeptical of Mr. Trump's tendencies on trade, and 25 Republican senators sent a letter to Mr. Trump urging him to re-engage with the pact "so that the American people can prosper from the tremendous opportunities that these trading partners bring."
Previously: Donald Trump to Withdraw US from Trans-Pacific Partnership
Renamed TPP Signed, Without the IP Rules, Without the USA
Related: "Legal Scrub" of TPP Makes Massive Change to Penalties for Copyright Infringement
US Government's Own Report Shows Toxic TPP "Not Worth Passing"
Australia Leads Charge to Revive TPP While Canada Abstains
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @01:51AM (5 children)
President Trump at least did business all over the world. Compare with recent democratic presidents:
* peanut farmer, governor of non-border state
* governor of non-border state
* community organizer (sounds like "unemployed"), senator
Yeah... President Trump has that beat. Well shit, Sarah Palin has that beat too.
I'll grant that we had an alternative with far more foreign policy experience, but massive fuckups (Benghazi, ISIS growing, dumb "reset button" with the Russian ambassador, Kim building nukes, cash to Iran...) aren't something to be proud of.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday April 13 2018, @02:41AM (2 children)
There's an important difference: Carter, Clinton, and Obama (as well as other presidents with minimal foreign policy experience, like Reagan and George W Bush) hired secretaries of state with at least some experience working in foreign policy, so that they were getting diplomatic advice from someone who has done that kind of work. Trump neither has any background in foreign policy nor hired someone with any background in foreign policy to be his secretary of state.
And the presidents with the most experience in foreign policy also tend to choose a fairly experienced hand at the state department. For instance, George H.W. Bush, himself no slouch when it came to diplomacy, picked James Baker for that role in part because he'd managed several important negotiations in the Reagan administration. That probably helped as the Soviets were tearing themselves apart.
But obviously you're a true Trump believer, and no matter what I say you believe he can do no wrong. I hope they're paying you well, at least.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @03:13AM
These people with massive amounts of foreign policy experience are responsible for disaster after disaster and unjust war after unjust war. Their experience was with corruption. Trump, being just as evil as they were (if not more so), is now continuing those practices. I'd take someone who isn't authoritarian but has little experience over the evil scumbags we've had time and time again.
The problem here isn't merely a lack of experience, but that Trump supports the wrong policies.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @03:27AM
I'm going to miss Rex Tillerson. It's too bad he had trouble obeying his boss.
Much of foreign policy involves oil-rich regions, places that need oil, transportation for oil, and all the interactions. You couldn't make a better choice than an experienced oil executive. An oil executive has to deal with supplies like Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Nigeria, Russia, and nearly all of the Middle East. An oil executive has to deal with buyers like China and Japan. An oil executive has to think about oceanic shipping routes, including canals, and land-based pipelines that cross national boundaries. Every oil executive has to have a mercenary team, possibly outsourced, to extract people from trouble spots around the world.
It doesn't get much better than that.
Pompeo is probably OK. He's a bit swampy, with his Bain and Koch connections. He at least has a military background and a dislike of islam, so that counts for something.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 13 2018, @03:26AM
Wow, Sarah Palin?
I'm not sure comparing her positively really helps your argument. Even Mr. Trump had a look of absolute horror on his face when she insisted on endorsing him. it's the funniest piece of TV I've seen in years.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @09:18AM
Cool! SN has become important enough for the Russians to spend Rubbles on!