A Gift to China

Posted: March 10th, 2017

By Jeffrey Schott

Jeffrey J. Schott joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 1983 and is a senior fellow working on international trade policy and economic sanctions. During his tenure at the Institute, Schott was also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University (1994) and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University (1986-88). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1982-83) and an official of the U.S. Treasury Department (1974-82) in international trade and energy policy. During the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations, he was a member of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the GATT Subsidies Code. Since January 2003, he has been a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee of the U.S. government. He is also a member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Just three days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that confirmed his intent to abandon American participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Barring an about-face from Washington, the TPP as negotiated may now be dead. However, the deal includes 11 other Asia-Pacific economies, including Japan and Canada, which may be interested in forging ahead with a revised TPP agreement that does not include the United States. As the remaining signatories prepare to meet in Vina del Mar, Chile, The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with Jeffrey Schott, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The Cipher Brief: How has President Trump’s decision not to pursue ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership affected the other members, and where do you see free trade in the Asia-Pacific region standing now?

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