--- title: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Explained | TIME description: TIME Foreign Affairs Columnist, Ian Bremmer, explains why the TPP will be Obama's greatest foreign policy achievement canonical: https://time.com/video/bMO0MQvu/ og:title: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Explained og:description: TIME Foreign Affairs Columnist, Ian Bremmer, explains why the TPP will be Obama's greatest foreign policy achievement og:url: https://time.com/video/bMO0MQvu/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bMO0MQvu/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Explained twitter:description: TIME Foreign Affairs Columnist, Ian Bremmer, explains why the TPP will be Obama's greatest foreign policy achievement twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bMO0MQvu/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Trans-Pacific Partnership Explained > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Explained [Watch (HLS stream): The Trans-Pacific Partnership Explained](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bMO0MQvu.m3u8) (3:11)  _Published 2016-05-19. TIME Foreign Affairs Columnist, Ian Bremmer, explains why the TPP will be Obama's greatest foreign policy achievement_ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [U.S. Takes Aim at $300 Billion in Chinese Imports for Higher Tariffs](/video/d7oj3Hs1/) ### U.S. Takes Aim at $300 Billion in Chinese Imports for Higher Tariffs [China to Hit U.S. With Tariffs on $60 Billion in Goods Amid Escalating Trade War](/video/M86kZui4/) ### China to Hit U.S. With Tariffs on $60 Billion in Goods Amid Escalating Trade War [TIME Exclusive Clip from Pacific Rim](/video/pNazUt95/) ### TIME Exclusive Clip from Pacific Rim --- ## Transcript The Trans- Pacific Partnership. The TPP The TPP The TPP TPP TPP There clearly had been some successes under the Obama Administration Foreign Policy, there's been some big failures too. But the biggest success that I would point to, the one that's longest the most [ INAUDIBLE ] would be the successful final conclusion of the Trans Pacific Partnership. That means then that You're competing with us because you have the best ideas and the best products as opposed to just you have the cheapest labor. It's a deal that is meant to actually deepen economic integration and the rules of the road for those countries that actually Agree and are most aligned with the rules that the United States has put into play, so that, of course, means NAFTA, the Canadians, the Mexicans, but it also means America's most important economic allies in the Asian region, which is the largest economic region in the world. And it's also the one that's fastest growing and you look at a sort of country like Japan, the world's third largest market. You look at South Korea, you look at Indonesia, you look at Singapore, these are all countries that you really and truly want to be integrating. With the US. And what the TPP will do is 40 % of the world's GDP will be aligned in deeper integration with the American's. I am not in favor of what I have learned about it. It's a very bad deal, should not be approved. If it is approved it'll just be more bad trade deals more lost jobs for our country. The reason you're losing jobs in this country over time has nothing to do with trade. It's really automation. It's AI. It's 3D Printing, that's a whole bunch of processes that are just making labour less a part of the equation, so in the same way that originally the Chinese and the Mexicans and many emerging markets, beat the americans because their labour was cheaper. You're now gonna see the Americans beat a lot of these companies because American technology is more important than early. [ UNKNOWN ] if all the Asian countries are offering our cheap labor then what happens is U. S. workers get hurt and you don't necessarily see an improvement in standards of living for those Asian countries. If everybody's operating in a higher level then we're all competing On an even playing field and overtime that will result in more growth and more development in Asean Countries. So labors going out of the market completely which actually means that over the long term free trade will benefit America more than other countries. Second point is the trans pacific partnership is really much more of a standards deal than it is a trade deal. Without this agreement Competitors that don't show our values, like China, will write the rules the rules of the global economy. The Chinese will not be a part of it. The way that you ultimately win with the Chinese is not punishing them, it's certainly not trying to contain them, because they're too big. If you build something that's so successful, that's so big and important The Chinese ultimately themselves figure out we wanna be a part of that. We lead by example. You end up being much more successful. But they will know that if they don't increasingly align their own standards with those of the TPP counties, that they will be left behind. That it will hurt their capital and trade flows. 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