As Obama is in China and Southeast Asia, he seems to be interested in trading. I know he wants the TPP, but do we need companies to move there? What can we trade with them, because we are not manufacturers. But we do make military arms.
No.
OK, THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD ENOUGH! IT'S TIME FOR A SHOWDOWN!
What does TPP stand for?
TPP good, TPP bad, or TPP indifferent, the first thing is to get past misunderstandings.
I suggest going to Google.com and looking up "benefits of TPP". It is not a simple matter of the Chinese being big-time manufacturers and USA being productively moribund, In fact, on a per-capita basis USA manufactures much more than China. You do not see it because US manufactured products, such as construction equipment, are hidden from your everyday view. American machinery is now subject to import taxes of up to 59 percent. TPP is not even about new markets for USA goods. USA is a world leader in agricultural production. As it stands now, various Asian countries impose tariffs of 40 percent or more on US agricultural goods such as poultry and pork. Despite those tariffs, we already have a significant export business in those products which can be further increased. Promoters of TPP also tout that it has enforceable labor standards that help "level the playing field". Of the 12 TPP countries, three of them - Canada, Mexico, and Japan - are among USA's 15 largest trading partners.
There are many things that TPP would not do. For starts, the USA has a trade imbalance of $1 in exports for every $4 in imports with China. China is not a TPP country.
https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Overall-US-Benefits-Fact-Sheet.pdf
The Chinese market was opened to the USA by President Richard Nixon. The current White House interloper is waaay late to that party.
The rest of southeast Asia has, more or less, always been open to the USA, particularly in the aftermath of World War II and the USA's efforts to rebuild that part of the world post wartime (where do you think most of our electronics like computer chips and cellphone handsets come from these days?).
The USA is STILL a manufacturing powerhouse contrary to what you seem to think. (Where do you think companies like Toyota build their cars aimed for the US market?) Unfortunately for manpower (jobs) our core infrastructure is now mostly built out which has minimized the need for "heavy" industry (steel made from iron ore) and a lot of our current manufacturing capability is now automated.
