The White House has released a state-by-state report on the benefits of its Trans Pacific Partnerships trade deal. It projects growth with partner nations now doing business with Louisiana.
Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker held a telephone news conference with administration officials to promote the Trans Pacific Partnership deal.
They say Louisiana can enhance the $17.5 billion business it now does with countries included in the trade deal. That includes about $200 million to Vietnam, and $162 million to Malaysia.
U-S Trade Representative Ambassador Mike Froman:
“Take a country like Vietnam or Malaysia. These are fast-growing markets, an emerging middle class. Our producers are, let’s say, farm machinery, want to be in there because these are countries that are buying a lot of machinery. If they have high tariffs it creates an incentive for us to have to move production to those countries in order to serve those markets," he said. "If we can tear down those tariffs, then we can keep production here in the United States and export from here.”
The Port of New Orleans and the World Trade Center of New Orleans are both supporting the trade deal.
Presidential hopefuls from both parties aren’t so sure that the deal won’t ship jobs overseas.
