A former U.S. trade official says the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not really dead and could resurface during President-elect Donald Trump’s term. Wendy Cutler, a former acting deputy U.S. Trade Representative, told the Washington International Trade Association last week she believes TPP was a victim of “bad timing.” She argued the agreement is too important for U.S. economic and strategic reasons for the U.S. to permanently abandon the agreement. Politico points out that Cutler helped negotiate part of the trade agreement before leaving the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. She said the plan for TPP was to conclude the talks a lot earlier, but added “the deal that was on the table two years earlier wasn’t the one we were prepared to take home,” so negotiators waited to get a better agreement. Now however, that agreement remains stalled thanks to election year politics.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.