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The White House
Trans-Pacific
Partnership
From President Barack Obama
When we have a level playing field, Americans out-compete anyone in the
world. That’s a fundamental truth about our country.
But right now, the rules of global trade put our workers, our
businesses, and our values at a disadvantage.
If you’re an autoworker in Michigan, the cars you build face taxes as
high as 70 percent in Vietnam. If you’re a worker in Oregon, you’re
forced to compete against workers in other countries that set lower
standards and pay lower wages just to cut their costs. If you’re a
small business owner in Ohio, you might face customs rules that are
confusing, costly, and an unnecessary barrier to selling abroad.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership will change that.
The TPP is the highest standard trade agreement in history. It
eliminates 18,000 taxes that various countries put on American goods.
That will boost Made-in-America exports abroad while supporting
higher-paying jobs right here at home. And that’s going to help our
economy grow.
I know that past trade agreements haven’t always lived up to the hype.
So I want to tell you a little bit about what makes this trade
agreement so different, and so important.
The TPP includes the strongest labor standards in history, from
requiring a minimum wage and worker safety regulations to prohibiting
child labor and forced labor. It also includes the strongest
environmental commitments in history, requiring countries in one of the
most biologically diverse areas on Earth to crack down on illegal
wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and illegal fishing. These
standards are at the core of the agreement and are fully
enforceable -- which means we can bring trade sanctions against
countries that don’t step up their game.
And for the first time ever, we’ll have a multilateral trade agreement
that reflects the reality of the digital economy by promoting a free
and open Internet and by preventing unfair laws that restrict the free
flow of data and information.
In other words, the TPP means that America will write the rules of the
road in the 21st century. When it comes to Asia, one of the world’s
fastest-growing regions, the rulebook is up for grabs. And if we don’t
pass this agreement -- if America doesn’t write those rules -- then
countries like China will. And that would only threaten American jobs
and workers and undermine American leadership around the world.
-- President Barack Obama
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