Trans Pacific Partnership Essay

The Trans Pacific Partnership also known as TPP is one of the biggest economic stories in Canada today. Twelve countries around the world, including Canada, have struck a deal to create a free trade zone. This agreement will create the largest trade zone in the world, impacting 800 million people. These twelve countries make up 40% of the world’s economic output which is $28.5 trillion dollars. This agreement seeks to lower trade barriers such as tariffs and allow for increased trade in the zone. For Canada this deal brings opportunities but also raises some major issues. We will look at two of these issues and then review the agreement through various economic lenses such as stakeholder analysis, concept of opportunity costs and type of economic system.

What this means is that more auto parts will now come from cheaper producing countries that are part of the free trade zone. For Canada this could mean loss of many jobs in the Auto Sector. The president of Auto workers union fears that under this deal the Canadian market will be flooded with cheaper Asian products and deepen Canada’s auto trade deficit with the rest of the world. For the stakeholders involved in this debate including the Auto workers, governments and educators, everybody seems to have a different view on the impact on the auto sector. The Federal government seems to feel that the deal will be a boost to the industry and have pledged a billion dollars in new funding for the Automotive Innovation Fund. This fund would be used for infrastructure, land and buildings needed for assembly plants under the current subsidy program in an effort to make foreign investment in Canada more attractive to foreign automotive