Why TPP Should Rise Again in the Next Congress

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is a non-starter for the lame duck session, but too much is at stake for the United States to walk away from it permanently. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady offered wise advice to President-elect Trump this week at an event hosted by Politico and FedEx:

I know in TPP my advice to [Trump] earlier this year, and [it] still stands, was ‘look, that’s a critical market for us.’ That region will hold half the middle-class customers on the planet by the end of the decade. We wanna be there. And if we withdraw or abandon that field completely, you know we lose and China wins in a major way.

Last month, at a Mercatus Center event on Capitol Hill, an expert panel examined the opportunities created by TPP to expand the U.S. economy, the freedom of Americans, and our influence in East Asia.