TPP Matters More than Refugees

Furor Over Refugee Order Overshadows TPP, Newsday, February 11, 2017. "President Donald Trump’s “extreme vetting” order on refugees is his most controversial act in his three weeks in office. But his decision to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was more important. Yet the first order stoked a panic, while the second received limited attention in comparison."

The Strengths and Weaknesses of TPP's ISDS

Straight Talk on the ISDS Provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with James M. Roberts and Riddhi Dasgupta, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4564, May 17, 2016. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an investment and trade agreement signed last February between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations, contains enforcement provisions, including an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, for resolving potential investment disputes related to the agreement. Today, the ISDS system is used widely around the globe to help protect the investor and to secure for the signatory nation the foreign investment it seeks. But ISDS has become controversial, both as part of the TPP and because it may be included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) presently being negotiated between the U.S. and the European Union. The ISDS provisions are only one component of the TPP. The agreement must be assessed as a whole. The purpose of this Issue Brief is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the ISDS provisions of the TPP, both as part of the agreement and as part of the broad agenda of American investment and trade diplomacy."

Corporatism's Not Free Trade

Barack Obama is Right to Want Free Trade, But He Has the Wrong Reasons, Newsday, June 26, 2015. "No thanks to his fellow Democrats, President Barack Obama won a victory in Congress last week when Republicans voted to give him the authority to negotiate trade agreements in Asia and Europe. Too bad so much of the president's case for the agreements is based on his belief that the United States is in decline."