The Trans-Pacific Partnership from SPICE on Vimeo.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement that was signed (but not yet ratified) by 12 countries along the Pacific Rim, including Japan and the United States. The leaders of the 12 member countries spent more than five years negotiating the terms of the TPP. In the United States, Japan, and other countries, the TPP has generated a great deal of controversy, and new President Donald Trump formally removed the United States from the TPP in his first week in office.
In this video lecture, Takeo Hoshi, the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Senior Fellow in Japanese Studies at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, attempts to answer several key questions about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. What was the rationale and case for the TPP? What are the gains from free trade agreements, and in particular, why was Japan going to gain from the TPP?
In the accompanying discussion guide, students become familiar with trade-related terms and engage in a discussion on how international trade impacts their lives.