Trade Deals

Trade deals are designed to increase trade.  Increased trade generally has overall economic benefits although it also has winners and losers.

The general economic theory is that everyone benefits as the most economical methods of production are utilized.

So if you have a climate that isn't good for raising wheat but is good for mining certain minerals effectively allowing a cheap wheat producing country to send you wheat in exchange for those minerals is beneficial.  Of course your wheat farmers get hurt as do the other countries miners, but, the rest of the population enjoys cheaper prices.

The United States had a situation where unskilled labor was more expensive than it was elsewhere in the world so we saw certain groups hurt by trade deals.  However, they and everyone else benefited by cheaper imported goods and those with the right skills benefited from our increased sales overseas.

There are many charts showing that while labor intensive manufacturing went away the total dollar value of manufactured goods did not decline.

Our more modern and more complex technological manufacturing has done quite well under those trade deals.

So could trade deals be better?  I guess the answer is always yes since nothing is perfect, but a deal that benefits the US at the cost of others is unlikely.

We should of course negotiate well but we do want our economy to grow and continue to export to the world economy. 

This leads to more jobs and better jobs in the long run and cheaper products for all.

This is basic economics but our citizens have to be prepared for the jobs of the future, not married to the jobs of the past.

Our withdrawal from TPP is likely to benefit China.  Economics is not political, it churns away regardless.