TPP: Think 50 Years from Now
TPP: Think 50 years from Now
Travis Cook of Scarbrough International, Ltd. at the White House TPP Briefing on July 13, 2016
Over the last few years, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, otherwise known as TPP, or the “biggest trade deal ever,” has been in and out of the news. It’s a topic I find discussed in supply chain management and transportation industry journals and websites in a frequent manner. Now that the Obama Administration is coming to an end, I notice TPP in the headlines more often.
As I started to look into it, I read many opinions on both sides of the spectrum, as well as the ones in the middle. I came to understand why the larger corporations want it passed. On the other hand, I also came to understand why the smaller companies might not want it passed. As I have always had a tendency to do, I sided with the smaller, mom and pop companies.
Then I was invited to The White House for a “Briefing on TPP & the President’s Trade Agenda” which allowed me to hear numbers and facts coming directly from the source. This was also an open floor briefing which allowed 50+ business leaders, professors, economists, large and small business owners to make comments and ask any questions they had.
It became clear to me that everyone was concerned about themselves and their companies right now, in the present. Not in the future.
This Trade Agreement is for our future. Think 50 years from now! The benefits should start to be seen immediately; if not, a majority of companies will start seeing the benefits within four years. But TPP is for our children, and the future that belongs to our children’s children. As an American, a business owner, and someone that wants to see fair trade, we need to push this trade agreement to be passed by year’s end.
It simply comes down to the United States. If the TPP Agreement does not go through, then American companies will continue to lose the competitive edge in e-commerce, technology, pricing, and overall trade on both imports and exports. That is because countries outside of the U.S. will continue to do business with one another, adding barriers or keeping current barriers up that we worked so hard to knock down.
Scarbrough recently had the privilege to talk with one of the original negotiators for the industrial sector of the TPP, Kate Mellor with the International Trade Administration. She gave us her time and answered questions in regards to the agreement and how it would effect your business. I encourage you to watch the question/answer playlist on our YouTube Channel. For more information on TPP, visit here.
If you have any comments or questions, I am always up for a conversation! Please email me directly at tcook@scarbrough-intl.com.
