That agreement included a dozen nations in the Americas, Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia, reducing trade barriers and increasing environmental and labor standards. “Ironically, he called them horrible negotiators when running for office,” said Trevor Kincaid, the spokesman for the United States Trade Representative’s office under Obama. Because both Canada and Mexico were also covered by TPP, it effectively would have replaced NAFTA had Trump and Congress approved it. “To some degree, we have wasted our time by redoing what was in the Pacific trade deal,” said James Pethokoukis, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “There’s a lot of overlap.”Even the issue that Trump called a “deal breaker” ― Canada’s protectionist policies for its dairy farmers ― was resolved in the new deal in the same manner it was resolved in TPP.

Source: Huffington Post October 01, 2018 23:08 UTC