News: Trump trade deal moves could hurt US security posture

President Donald Trump has moved quickly against free-trade deals that he says are hurting American workers -- but in the process he risks dismantling a key pillar of US national security.In his first week on the job, Trump has withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and called for the North American Free Trade Agreement to be renegotiated and perhaps abandoned.Amid anger over job losses and concerns about sovereignty that helped fuel Trump's victory, lawmakers in districts hurt by trade and labor unions celebrated the news.But beyond the economic consequences -- which many TPP proponents argue will be negative for the US -- the moves shake the foundations of the US global security architecture. American policy dating back to WWII has used multilateral trade agreements as a tool to strengthen US security and advance US leadership around the world."That's been the case with US trade policy for the entire post-war period," said Fred Bergsten, founding director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, speaking of agreements like NAFTA and TPP. "So when you undo them, as Trump could do, you are really striking a major blow against fundamental US national security interests."
Bergsten and others also said that the TPP withdrawal clears the way for China to pushfor greater dominance in Asia. "The Chinese could not have a greater gift than the one Trump has given them," Bergsten said. Trump "just handed it over on a silver platter and they'll sit back and rake it in."While there's a price tag for the economic cost of withdrawal, according to Bergsten,"the national security costs of turning leadership of that region over to your chief rival are really incalculable."As a US network in Asia, the TPP would have created "a bulwark against China," he said, echoing others who argue that withdrawal impacts the US ability to lead on issueslike the South China Sea, where Beijing makes territorial claims, freedom of navigation and values of human rights, democracy and freedom.Harry Kazianis, director of Defense Studies at the Center for the National Interest, said that "we must remember, TPP, at its core, was never about trade." It's core goal, Kazianis said, was to create a deal of "real strategic" importance.Consumer and advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an internet freedom group, complained that the deal was being negotiated behind closed doors and was likely to benefit multinational companies more than ordinary people. And lawmakers such as Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders rallied people against a "fast-track" procedure that barred Congress from amending the deal.Backers of Trump's approach on trade primarily focus on the economic effects, arguing that having a robust American workforce and GDP will project US strength internationally.

 Labor unions and lawmakers focused on domestic issues welcomed the idea of a NAFTA rewrite and praised the TPP move. The AFL-CIO tweeted that the TPP cancelation was a "good first step toward building trade policies that benefit working people." Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, wrote Trump on Tuesday sayingshe supported a new approach to trade deals.Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer, speaking in a January 23 press briefing about the TPP, saying, "this type of multinational agreement is not in our best interest."But other lawmakers and analysts contended that the reorientation on trade will have both negative strategic and economic impact. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona called the TPP withdrawal "a serious mistake that will have lasting consequences for America's economy and our strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region."Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, a thinktank closely aligned with Vice President Mike Pence, said the US can't simply walk away from the TPP."It would be a mistake not to have a Plan B," Lohman said. "We need to have a Plan B, some sort of approach that would demonstrate our interest in the region."