"My view, and the view of many, is that trade agreements are more of a foreign policy tool than an economic policy tool. Presidents and their State Departments want alliances with countries, and use trade agreements as part of the diplomacy, tying us together. The problem is that we lose so many industries as we “bribe” those countries by way of giving them access to our domestic market without receiving similar volumes of foreign sales.

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Thus… Clinton’s and Obama’s strategy is fatally flawed, because (1) the TPP will likely worsen our trade deficit or at least it won’t help and (2) the fact of our trade deficit means we can’t be a substantial foreign investor (because we are a net recipient of foreign investment)."

http://economyincrisis.org/content/hillary-clinton-wants-u-s-investment-in-asia