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[–] oedipusaurus_rex ago 

Trade deals aren't necessarily bad, but from where I'm standing, this one is.

What's going on geo-politically is that the US and Europe are all on the same page. We follow the same laws that were put into place when the US was a manufacturing powerhouse, so we were able to negotiate trade laws that benefited the US. Since Nafta went through our manufacturing was outsourced to other countries. We got really cheap goods out of this deal, but the manufacturing sector was decimated. If you didn't work in manufacturing then this was a good thing. If you did then this was a bad thing. Also it was kinda bad because we sold off one of our bargaining chips for cheaper prices on goods.

So right now China and SE Asia are huge manufacturing hubs. The US doesn't have much going on in that area of the world, and it's coming up in a big way, and they have no obligation to follow the same trade laws as the rest of the world. The TPP was negotiated to implement trade laws that benefit US interest in that part of the world. Since we don't have a major stake in manufacturing anymore we have to give China something to make it worth their time. As it turns out most of our good paying service sector jobs can be outsourced. Things like nursing, customer service, they can be done over telephone and internet. China wanted to take over the US service sector as payment for following western trade laws.

If you or your family work in jobs in the service industry then the TPP is not in your best interest. If you own a company that does international trade in SE Asia then the TPP is a great thing.