Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Analysis

In order to analyze social and economic sides of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, it is important to review details on this new free trade agreement (FTA). First of all, according Encyclopædia Britannica, free trade is “a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports)” (“Free Trade” 1). The idea of free trade first appeared in 1776, when Adam Smith, an economist, claimed the benefit of free trade in his book called The Wealth of Nations (Irwin 1). During the Great Depression, most of the nations went into the protectionism, which is the trade policy to place high tariffs on export to enhance the domestic industries. In order to override …show more content…
According to Steve Chabot, chairman of the House Small Business Committee, “In order to promote entrepreneurship in this country, one final area that must not be ignored is trade” (Harrison 1). However, workers at manufacturing factories in the U.S. claimed that free trade will remove manufacturing jobs from America to Mexico due to cheaper labor force (“Nike Saying” 3), resulting in the elimination of jobs in the U.S. The opposing side of NAFTA claimed that it will shrink the middle class, spreading social gap between rich and poor even more (Gerard 1). After the enforcement of NAFTA in 1994, those claims became true. Many of manufacturing jobs moved to Mexico and caused massive job loss in the U.S. (Gerard 1). This resulted with 66% increase in GDP for NAFTA from 1993 to 2013, though (“10 Reasons” …show more content…
Many labor unions, like the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), see that TPP will eliminate more jobs and create an even wider social gap, due to prosperity of large corporations in exchange of the sacrifice of American workers. Also, because the many of the countries involved in TPP are developing nations, some companies and medical organizations worry that intellectual property and safety standards for products will be destroyed (Baker 1). In contrast, the Obama Administrations and other large corporations claim that it will open the market that occupies 40% of global GDP and boost the U.S. economy (“Overview of TPP” 1). This argument reflects the value tension between public wealth and private wealth, because TPP will create a huge benefit for global companies while harming employment for American workers