Noah Smith, Columnist

How to Fill the Void Left by TPP

China and Russia see an opening to expand in Asia. A U.S. trade deal with Japan would be a good response.

November 29, 2016 at 5:55 PM UTC

Noah Smith is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.

That's settled.
Photographer: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/getty images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have created trade links between the U.S., Japan and a number of other Asian countries, is dead. Donald Trump has vowed to kill the pact on his first day in office. That won’t be a hard promise to keep, as the trade deal was already effectively dead -- Trump’s move is just a flourish.

The TPP had garnered opposition from both sides of the political spectrum -- Bernie Sanders supporters were dead set against it as well. Progressive activists walking past my house had “Stop TPP” buttons on their backpacks. If there was any policy that was doomed this election cycle, it had to be this one. I don’t really know, but I suspect that the TPP mostly acted as a scapegoat for more general fears about globalization -- a symbolic show of strength by skeptics of trade deals.