As Donald Trump settles into office, he is already making some huge changes. Recently, Trump repealed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that former President Barack Obama was a supporter of. The TPP would have set new terms for trade and business investments among 12 countries along the Pacific rim, including the United States. The TPP was a controversial topic among many politicians for the past year and I hesitantly agree with Trump and his decision to repeal it. I have never been in support of Trump and his values, but I have to push my feelings aside and agree that the TPP may have not been the best decision for our country.
During Senator Bernie Sanders’ run for president, he correctly argued that the Trans-Pacific Partnership would not protect American workers or the environment. He believed it was designed to protect multinational corporations. If we were to enforce the TPP, it would have been at the expense of the workers, consumers and environment. In the United States we have a history of protecting the wealthy. The wealthy usually are the ones who run the country and the lower class does not have any say. Most laws are set up to make it so the poor are not able to get out of the lower class, and the TPP would contribute to this. Factory workers would suffer from the TPP while the presidents of large companies would make more of a profit. Many professions, like service sector and manufacturing jobs, would be outsourced and workers would be in competition against low wage labor around the world. Along with protecting the lower class, in Sanders’ stance against the TPP he was also looking out for the negative effects it would have on the environment. Over the last couple decades, our environment has suffered greatly from pollution and a loss of animals and the TPP would have given large corporations power to challenge any law that would affect their future profits. I agree with Sanders’ view that the TPP would have put people at risk of losing their jobs and for the most powerful corporations in the world to gain more power.
Although I agree with Trump’s decision to repeal the TPP, I do not agree with his reasons for it and how he went about it. Obama and other politicians had been in discussion about the TPP for the eight years Obama was in office. They had done extensive research, listened to other people’s views and tried to figure out the best decision for our country. Trump has been in office for less than a week and he has already repealed it. It seems rushed and drastic for Trump to make such a big decision after only being in office for a short amount of time, especially considering how much time and effort had been put into creating the TPP. Our country should consider enacting a better way for countries around the world to trade. Obama’s idea may not have been the best, but the TPP was years in the making. President Obama and other politicians had been following the process since the beginning and their reasons for what they believed were well-developed; Trump’s decision to repeal it was rash. His quick decision-making shows that he has his own opinions and will stubbornly stick to his prior values without taking the time to understand something as complex as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP was designed to put American workers and the environment in harm’s way, giving large corporations more power, but Trump oversimplified it by eliminating it during his first week in office.
Leave a Reply