The text of Trans Pacific Partnership agreement is now available to the public.
USDA says it will help Ag exports but what do big union groups think? USDA and other major Ag groups favor TPP. They say it will help increase farm income, generate rural economic activity, support local jobs, and increase exports.
Celeste Drake is AFL-CIO Trade & Globalization Policy Specialist. She says yes they?d like to see increasing exports and market access overseas but they have serious doubts TPP can accomplish this. She says primarily because it fails to address currency manipulation in an enforceable way.
?Currency manipulation has cost America 5.8 million jobs. If we could address the fact that there are egregious currency manipulators within the TPP which include Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia then we might better be able to trust the promises of market access but tariffs go down in one hand and countries play games with currencies in the other, those markets close back up because that currency gaming acts as a tax on U.S. exports and a subsidy on U.S. imports to the U.S.,? Drake said.
Drake says the AFL-CIO is for trade and investment but think the rules in the TPP are worse than the status quo. She adds the organization will do whatever it can to keep fighting to defeat the TPP to create a new and better agreement.
To view the TPP agreement click here.
