Editorial: TPP isn’t dead — outside of the U.S.

At a weekend economic summit in Peru, leaders of Pacific Rim nations in Asia and the Americas made clear their support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership — with or without the United States. But some also said they may throw in with a competing approach to free trade: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a trading bloc being assembled by the People’s Republic of China. Their statements underscore the geopolitical risks that the United States will take if it does not embrace the deal it helped negotiate with 11 other Pacific nations.

The TPP was always going to be a tough sell in Congress, as a growing number of Republicans have joined most Democrats in questioning the value of free-trade deals. But the pact became radioactive during the presidential campaign, as leading candidates from both major parties denounced it as a threat to American jobs and sovereignty. President-elect Donald J. Trump said Monday that he would issue a notice of intent to withdraw the United States from as-yet unratified TPP on his first day in office, and later seek bilateral trade deals with some of its participants.

The concerns about lost jobs and decreased U.S. flexibility are valid, yet the right answer isn’t to pretend that globalization isn’t happening. It’s to push global competition in a direction that works for this country as well as its trading partners, while doing more to help American workers adapt to the new reality. That process starts with deals such as the TPP, which requires other nations to live by labor, environmental and intellectual-property regulations more like ours.

The free-trade pact China is pushing, though, doesn’t include such standards, and its adoption would encourage a multinational race to the bottom for wage and hour laws, emissions limits and other rules for commerce, making it even harder for U.S. workers to compete. But there may be a way forward for Trump, despite his oft-stated opposition to the pact as a “bad deal.” Leaders of several TPP nations have indicated a willingness to tweak the TPP — the kind of renegotiation he has said he wants, although the changes ultimately may just be cosmetic. Rather than simply withdrawing from the pact, he should accept that invitation.