The Tide That Sinks All Boats

The rise of nationalism and protectionism has turned free trade into an international political villain. The future of the global economy will hinge on its rehabilitation.

- Chris Matthews

THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP is on life support, as President Barack Obama may be virtually the last elected official in Washing-ton who hasn’t given it up for dead.Hillary Clinton—who once lauded the deal as the “gold standard” of trade agreements—has spent months trying to convince nervous progressives that she has no intention of supporting the 14-nation pact once she gets in office And Donald Trump—as the nominee of a Republican Party whose support of free trade was once more reliable than clockwork—has been calling the pact “a rape of our country”. Now, as President-elect, Trump has promised that one of his first actions in office would be to pull out of the treaty.

The agreement’s moribund condition is a far cry from where it was just last year, when it seemed that passing the TPP was the only thing Obama and congressional Republicans could agree on. Then Washington was rocked by the populist campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, which brought with them 20 years of pent-up anger over sagging wages, rising income inequality, and suspicions of corporate political cronyism.