Libertarian CATO Institute Endorses TPP

[portlander23]

CATO GIVES TPP A THUMBS-UP
ADAM BEHSUDI
Politico

The Cato Institute is urging approval of the TPP, arguing the benefits of the 12-nation pact outweigh its shortcomings. “If the TPP will deliver more trade liberalization than restriction, and realistic alternatives to comprehensive liberalization are unavailable, why not support the TPP?” the libertarian think tank concluded.

Cato scholars evaluated 22 of the TPP's 30 chapters, ranking them on a scale of 1 to 10. The simple average score was 5.82, slightly above neutral. However, in Cato's view, the chapters dealing with market openings are more important than those on rules and governance. Taking that into account, it gave the pact a weighted average score of 6.03.

Former U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter agreed the pact fell short in some areas, but during a discussion at the think tank he argued it was strongly in the U.S. national interest for Congress to approve the pact. However, Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said the economic gains were too modest to justify the massive effort needed to win approval. To read the report, click here.

[pampango]

1. Their lowest grades were on the labor, trade remedies and environmental chapters.

On Labor:

Labor chapters in trade agreements do not promote liberalization. They are designed to increase regulation of foreign labor practices. While there may be a political argument for including them in trade agreements, there is no economic rationale.

In the TPP, labor protections have been pushed even further. While much of the TPP labor chapter simply borrows from earlier agreements, with commitments to follow certain rights set out in the ILO Declaration and an obligation to “effectively enforce” domestic labor laws, the TPP goes beyond traditional labor chapters in a number of ways, including by requiring that parties “adopt and maintain statutes and regulations” with respect to minimum wages.

On the Environment:

The TPP’s Environment chapter reduces the agreement’s value by making trade liberalization contingent on the adoption of certain environmental regulations. The TPP continues a decades-long trend of blurring the line between trade agreements and environmental treaties. However, the chapter imposes stronger obligations than past U.S. trade agreements and contains a genuinely liberalizing prohibitionagainst subsidies that contribute to overfishing.

Trade Remedies:

The purpose of this chapter seems to be to ensure that TPP brings no liberalization to the U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty, or safeguard regimes. It accomplishes that objective by specifying that each country retains its rights under the WTO to invoke measures under those laws. In addition, the chapter avails the parties of new forms of protectionism by providing a “transitional safeguard measure,” which could be used to increase tariffs on imports included those not found to be “unfairly” traded.

It looks like CATO is going to war with Trump, the Texas GOP and the John Birch Society.

I love it when the right conducts circular firing squads.

[PowerToThePeople]

2. Of course they do.

Right wingers love all things right wing.

[AgingAmerican]

3. Of course they do, it's the core of their ideology