Pro-TPP arguments show desperation

[n2doc]

If trade agreement supporters are going with their best sell, there’s clearly little to be said in its favor


by Dean Baker


The push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is reaching its final stages, with the House of Representatives soon voting on granting the president fast-track trade authority, which will almost certainly determine the pact’s outcome. The proponents of the TPP are clearly feeling the pressure as they make every conceivable argument for the deal, no matter how specious.

In the last few weeks, TPP advocates have repeatedly tripped up, getting their facts wrong and their logic twisted. This hit parade of failed arguments should be sufficient to convince any fence sitters that this deal is not worth doing. After all, if you have a good product, you don’t have to make up nonsense to sell it.

Leading the list of failed arguments was a condescending editorial from USA Today directed at unions that oppose the TPP because they worry it would cost manufacturing jobs. The editorial summarily dismissed this idea. It cited Commerce Department data showing that manufacturing output has nearly doubled since 1997 and argued that the job loss was due to productivity growth, not imports.

It turned out that the table used in the editorial did not actually measure manufacturing output. The correct table showed a gain of only 40 percent over 17 years. By comparison, in the prior 10 years, when our trade deficit was not expanding, manufacturing output increased by roughly 50 percent.

more

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/5/pro-tpp-arguments-show-desperation.html

[A Little Weird]

1. I agree - I'm surprised to find any supporters of TPP on DU

Also from the article:

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With the economic arguments for the TPP falling flat, some commentators have turned to the geopolitical argument. Fareed Zakaria went this route in a column last week. After implying that opponents of the TPP favored a return to autarky, he argued that we should be less concerned about what the TPP would do for the United States and think more about what it would do for our trading partners. He held up NAFTA and what it did for Mexico as a model.

This should leave readers more than a bit baffled. On the economic side, Mexico has lagged badly in the years since NAFTA went into effect. According to International Monetary Fund data, the country went from having a per capita GDP that was 34.9 percent of the United States’ in 1993 to 32.7 percent last year. Developing countries are supposed to catch up to rich countries economically, not fall further behind.
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[n2doc]

2. I'm not

The President is popular and his word is golden to many people.

[tridim]

3. No n2doc, the President is ~trustworthy~ because he earned that trust over a long period of time.

Your condescending attitude sucks.

[MisterP]

4. they've got MORE desperate arguments than "it's racism, pure and simple" and "you're handing the

country over to the GOP and China"?

[pampango]

5. Pro- and anti- sides are both doing it. Throw all the you-know-what against the wall and see what sticks.

There's "Do you want China to rule the world?" argument vs the "Death of American sovereignty and democracy" argument.

As the vote on TPA in the House gets closer there is desperation on all sides.

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!