Yet Kudlow’s “trade coalition of the willing” is exactly the plan that Trump had abolished at the start of his presidency. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, was a US-led trade agreement that includes 12 countries around the Pacific Rim, who together account for about 40% of the world’s GDP, but excludes China. Just three days after his inauguration, Trump, who had argued that the TPP could harm American manufacturing, pulled the US out of the trade deal, just as he promised on the campaign trail.
The TPP requires members to commit to heightened standards in areas like labor law, environmental protection, and intellectual property (IP), in addition to lowering tariffs. Former US president Barack Obama framed the TPP, one of his signature foreign-policy initiatives, as an effort to set free-trade standards in Asia ahead of China. If China were to join the partnership, it would have to crack down on all the things Trump has complained about, from dumping to stealing American IP.