The TPP is up and running without us, and we're losing out on its opportunities
President Trump often says our trade partners treat us unfairly. Yet one of his first acts as president was to withdraw from a trade pact agreement designed to give favored treatment to its signatories. On Dec. 30, 2018, that pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (known as TPP), went into effect without the United States.
The TPP is a free trade agreement negotiated by the Obama administration that would have allowed the United States to participate in a free-trade zone with several countries, including Canada, Japan, Mexico, and several others. TPP had critics on both sides of the aisle, but it offered an extended free-trade zone and was part of an Obama administration effort to counter Chinese economic influence.