by Kerby Anderson

This year we will be hearing quite a bit about the Trans Pacific Partnership, also known as TPP. It not only will be part of the presidential campaign, but there is good reason to believe an important vote will be taken on it after the November election. The TPP agreement establishes a Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission that has sweeping regulatory powers. It is charged with overseeing the implementation and operation of the agreement and has the power to amend it or modify it. In fact, the White House says the TPP is a “living agreement” that can be updated at any time. Curtis Ellis was on my radio program recently. He said this commission is “an international regulatory agency [that] will be staffed by faceless, unelected bureaucrats tasked with writing rules on immigration, food, energy, medicine, Internet, copyright, patents and business within our borders as well as across our borders.” The TPP could be compared to the EU, which originally started out at a coal and steel cooperative, then evolved into the European Common Market, and now is the European Union. Months ago, the president made it clear that the U.S. wasn’t interested in the UK if they left the EU because he wanted to negotiate with a big bloc like the EU. The U.S. Trade Representative reinforced those comments by saying that the administration only wanted to build trade platforms like the TPP. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton helped negotiate the TPP but then renounced it last fall, perhaps to fend off the challenge from Bernie Sanders. Some skeptics believe that is merely a tactical feint, and that she will push TPP through after the election. Donald Trump has consistently been against the TPP. The TPP is a bad trade deal, but that won’t stop many in this administration that will push for a critical vote by the end of the year.