In what feels as one of the most agonizing deaths to a piece of legislation, it appears that the much touted death of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has not yet come to pass or is in serious doubt. It’s been shot, stabbed, battered and lambasted to an apparent death, yet after being declared deceased on 20 different occasions, no one can confirm its actual status. In taking a page right out of Donald Trump’s playbook, I and the rest of America demand that Trump produce the TPP’s Long Form Death Certificate! After promising us its murder, he, along with his still forming cabinet, have followed the promises up with vague statements as to its current status and have failed to yield any concrete evidence of its legitimate death. With the presence of some lobbyist in his original transition team, which have now departed, it has become increasing difficult to estimate Trump’s level of commitment to killing the trade agreement.
This influence on the transition team along with last weeks “emergency” meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister who desperately wants to salvage the TPP agreement, has made it increasingly impossible to establish the TPP’s level of dead, much like establishing a woman’s level of pregnancy. This is why we demand the death certificate so, like with the email news stories, we can finally move on with our lives and mission to bring back 1960’s type of manufacturing.