April 14, 2015
The Washington Post again pushed for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in an editorial urging Congress to pass fast track trade authority. Now wanting to waste time with arguments, it jumps straight to ad hominems:
“To the measure’s far more numerous critics on the left, the TPP is yet another corporation-friendly bargain that will destroy American jobs, as the North American Free Trade Agreement, also passed pursuant to fast-track authority, allegedly did.
“These are old anti-trade arguments that aren’t convincing even before you account for the fact that the TPP is about geopolitics as well as economics.”
Yeah, well arithmetic and logic are pretty old too, that’s probably why they don’t get a friendly reception at the Washington Post. Of course the trade deal is in fact corporation-friendly, since that is primarily who is at the negotiating table. They are taking the opportunity to write rules that they expect will increase their profits.
Many of the rules have nothing to do with trade, but rather limit countries’ ability to impose various types of consumer and health safety regulation. In fact, some of the most important parts of the deal are explicitly anti-trade, such as the chapter on intellectual property which will strengthen patent and copyright protections. These monopolies obstruct trade and increase costs.
The TPP also misses the opportunity to set rules on currency. It is now widely recognized by economists that one of the main reasons the United States faces a shortfall in demand is its trade deficit, which is in turn the result of an over-valued currency.
The editorial also has decided that Japan is “aging and economically troubled.”
“The key here is Japan. Aging and economically troubled, the Asian giant is looking to forge a deeper political and security commitment with the United States to offset a rising China.”
One of the main reason that Japan is “aging” is that its population has a considerably longer life expectancy than do people in the United States. While Japan’s economy has troubles, the same can be said of almost any economy in the world.
The Post has repeatedly touted the strong job growth in the United States in the last two years. According to the OECD, the employment to population ratio in the United States has increased by 1.3 percentage points since the end of 2012. By comparison, it has increased by 2.2 percentage points in Japan.
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