Having long eight years of negotiations Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal has reached its agreement on October 05 between the United States of America and eleven Pacific Rim countries in Atlanta city of Georgia state of the USA. Other countries are: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru. China, the world’s second largest economy, has been left out of the deal. While concluding the agreement, US trade representative Michael Froman has this to say, “We think it helps define the rules of the road for the Asia-Pacific region in ways that are consistent with the values we share … It’s an agreement that puts American workers first and will help middle class families get ahead.” The United States and eleven Pacific Rim countries must approve the deal. Although the deal appears to be potentially one of the most significant trade deals in history, there is a Herculean task to get approval of the Congress. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who spearheaded to secure passage of trade promotion authority this year over the opposition of Democrats and labour unions, said, “Serious concerns have been raised on a number of key issues. This deal demands intense scrutiny by the Congress, and the legislation we passed earlier this year provides us the opportunity to give this agreement that scrutiny”. Apart from lawmakers from Democratic and Republican parties, presidential candidates like Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee of the Republican Party and Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Party and now Hillary Clinton, who is another presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, have raised concern about the trade deal. Senator Bernie Sanders is an outspoken critic of the trade deal. Hillary Clinton was supporter of the deal while it was under negotiations. Possibly she changed her mind because of cloudy atmosphere in the political arena over the deal. Some members of Democratic Party in the Congress are of the opinion that the agreement will drive more manufacturing job losses in the United States and the deal does not address currency manipulation by chronic violators such as Japan and Vietnam, and that lenient rules of origin for manufactured products will allow producers to claim an item is made in the US when half or more of its parts are produced elsewhere, including in non-TPP countries, such as China. The deal is designed to encourage trade between US and eleven Pacific Rim countries to beat People’s Republic of China to dominate these markets. It is interesting enough to note that this deal, if implemented, would eliminate tariffs that are considered barriers. The deal would eliminate tariffs on nearly 18,000 categories of goods ranging from dairy products to software. The United States is having trade deficit with Canada, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam. If the deal is implemented, United States would benefit in trading with these countries. The National Retail Federation said TPP would benefit merchants and consumers in a way that international trade supports millions of jobs in the retail industry, and that the number would only grow with passage of TPP, said federation’s Senior Vice-President David French while AFL-CIO (The American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations) President Richard Trumka holds diametrically opposite opinion by saying “rushing through a bad deal will not bring economic stability to working families, nor will it bring confidence that our priorities count as much as those of global corporations. We will evaluate the details carefully and work to defeat this corporate trade deal if it does not measure up.” Similarly, progressive groups are pushing Congress to reject the deal. Sierra Club Executive Director holds the opinion that the deal threatens our families, our communities and our environment. TPP will protect minimum wages, proposes ban on child labour and workplace discrimination, allow right to form a union and bargain collectively while maintaining workplace safety standards and impose sanctions for violating labour rights. On the other hand, trade sanctions will be imposed for violating environmental protection, and protecting consumers from fraud and deception. At the same time TPP would ensure comprehensive anti-corruption and transparency measures and help simplify export rules. The White House, in the meantime, has started a campaign in favour of this deal which has been reflected in receiving an e-mail by this writer on October 7 from the White House forwarding a message from a businessman Sam Franklin of Seattle of Washington State. Sam Franklin said in his message that “a trade agreement that levels the playing field for entrepreneurs like me so we can sell more made-in-America products abroad and support more jobs here at home. With the TPP, any entrepreneur can sell to anyone with an internet connection in the countries that have signed on. That’s huge deal for online businesses like mine — businesses that are becoming a bigger of our nation’s economy.” This being the position on the grounds deal would likely to face stiff opposition. If the deal crosses the hurdle, garment industry in Bangladesh would likely be affected badly. Garment products would flood US markets from Vietnam. Vietnam is already in US market. During August of 2015 the United States is reportedly exported to Vietnam $ 4,460.0 million worth of goods while imported goods worth $ 24,707.7 million which means trade with Vietnam goes in favour of Vietnam, according to statistics of United States census bureau. Since Bangladesh is having problem following series of incidents in garment industries in 2013 and 2014 and violated protection of labourers. Vietnam is projected as “an Ideal Export Hub” to reach other Asean markets to escape rising costs in China and Hong Kong and “increasing complex regulatory environment”. Workers in Vietnam are highly skilled and inexpensive. Also the 140-page US-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement which was signed in December of 2001 appears to be a commitment by both sides to “create necessary conditions for the products, businesses, and nationals of the other side to have fair access to compete in other’s markets”. TPP — President Obama’s signature project in second term of presidency — is hanging in the balance.
