(6/17/2015) In recent op-eds and blog-posts I have argued that prospective trade agreements like the TPP (the Trans Pacific Partnership) would be economically beneficial for reasons similar to past trade agreements and that they would have geopolitical benefits too. I have also opposed adding currency manipulation to the trade negotiations.
I am far from alone. Support for giving the White House Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is shared by most economists, including 14 former chairs of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. But we supporters have not sufficiently responded to the most common arguments of the critics of the TPA process: a perceived abandonment of democracy and transparency.