McCain slams TPP withdrawal, again, as a strategic blunder

April 26, 2017

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) solicited strong support Tuesday from a panel of defense policy experts for his position that the Trump administration made a serious strategic mistake in withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“So would the witnesses agree that the abandonment of TPP was one of the biggest mistakes we have made?” McCain asked in his first question to a panel convened to discuss policy and strategy in the Asia-Pacific.  McCain has said repeatedly over the past year that withdrawing from TPP – a top campaign pledge by candidate Donald Trump — would create a leadership vacuum that China would be quick to fill, and that it would rattle the confidence of U.S. allies in the region.

McCain’s witnesses on Tuesday agreed.  Victor Cha, senior adviser and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said TPP was “not just a trade deal,” while Princeton professor Aaron Friedberg said the decision “pulled the rug out” from under U.S. allies. Recovery, Friedberg said, “is going to take awhile.”

“Yes, it was a catastrophe,” said Kelly Magsamen, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. “It’s making our job on the defense side a lot harder.”

Ashley Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the agreement could have added “close to 1 percent” to annual U.S. growth. “Even if you believe in America First, we need to find ways to boost growth,” he said.

Source: https://insidetrade.com/trade/mccain-slams-tpp-withdrawal-again-strategic-blunder