Trump’s first order of business: Exit TPP

President-elect Donald Trump announced a series of immediate actions he plans to take to increase jobs and wages for workers, including the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.    President-elect Donald Trump on Monday announced a list of “executive actions” he plans to take in the first days after taking office, the majority of which are aimed at boosting economic activity and job creation.
   In a two-minute video produced by his transition team, Trump said he will notify partners in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement that the United States intends to withdraw from the free trade agreement, which he called “a potential disaster for our country.”
   Instead, his administration plans to “negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back to American shores,” he said.
   Trump made exiting the TPP a main theme of his campaign.
   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meeting with reporters at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru, said TPP would be meaningless without U.S. involvement, according to Reuters.
   Other immediate actions Trump said he would take include:

     • Canceling environmental restrictions on shale oil exploration and clean coal burning for power;
     • Directing the Department of Labor to investigate abuses of visa programs that undercut American workers;
     • Directing the Department of Defense to develop a comprehensive plan to protect critical infrastructure from cyber, and other types of attacks;
     • And issuing a rule to agencies that for every new regulation promulgated, two regulations must be eliminated.

   The Obama administration has a full-scale cybersecurity initiative and the Department of Homeland Security has a policy for protecting critical infrastructure. What changes a Trump administration makes in these areas remains to be seen.