Currency Must Be Addressed in the TPP

By Taylor Garland
Feb 04 2015 |

TPP could lock in currency manipulation and cost U.S. jobs.

We’ve got to level the playing field for American workers.

Nearly 900,000 U.S. jobs were lost in 2013 due to America’s trade deficit with Japan, including 466,000 in manufacturing, according to a just-released report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Japan’s currency cheating is driving the deficit — and things could soon get a whole lot worse.

That’s because the United States is currently negotiating a trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Japan and 10 other nations. There currently is no provision in the TPP preventing currency manipulation.

Bipartisan majorities in Congress, leading economists from both sides of the aisle, and domestic manufacturers all agree that a currency manipulation provision should be included in the TPP.

Said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.):

“We want to export our products, not our jobs. Unfortunately, today’s [EPI] report calls attention to what we already know—American businesses and workers lose when other countries cheat. It’s absolutely critical that any trade agreement includes strong and enforceable currency provisions to hold our trading partners accountable.”

See, when countries like Japan drive down the value of their currency, they are rigging the game by subsidizing their own companies. That is unfair to American businesses and workers, who play by the rules in the open market.

History shows that nothing erodes the benefits of free trade faster than currency manipulation. Make sure Washington doesn’t trade away our jobs