President Donald Trump, who campaigned on upending the idea of how America trades with other countries, signed an executive order Monday that withdraws the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Though the U.S. never actually approved the deal, the TPP is a multilateral trade deal between 12 Pacific Rim nations—including Chile, Japan, and Australia—that covered 40 percent of the world’s economies. It was supposed to lower tariffs and set regulations for how to solve trading quarrels between the countries.
Critics, though, have said that the treaty was too secretive and too friendly to big business while potentially harming American workers.
Bernie Sanders was against the TPP, and though Hillary Clinton was for it at one point in her campaign, she eventually changed her mind. So, in this case, Trump, Sanders, and Clinton are in agreement that the treaty endorsed and negotiated by Barack Obama and Paul Ryan shouldn’t be implemented.
Trump tweeted early Monday morning that jobs were on his mind.
Busy week planned with a heavy focus on jobs and national security. Top executives coming in at 9:00 A.M. to talk manufacturing in America.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2017
After signing his executive orders—he also ordered a hiring freeze for federal workers and stopped funding for organizations that perform abortions and receiving federal money in the process—and halting TPP, Trump said, “We’ve been talking about this for a long time.” Trump also said leaving TPP is a “great thing for the American worker.”
Now that the U.S. has withdrawn, the TPP likely will be abandoned altogether.
Trump officials also said Monday he wants to renegotiate NAFTA, the free trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada put in place during the Bill Clinton administration.