Pevehouse & Powers: Do Americans think strategically when they think about trade?

A key talking point in the Obama Administration’s efforts to convince Congress and the public to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a proposed trade and investment treaty between the U.S. and 12 nations in the Asia Pacific region, now being negotiated—is that the U.S. needs to “write the rules” of trade in the Asia Pacific region before China does. Obama warned in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal that China would be able to “muscle other countries in the region around rules that disadvantage us” if the United States fails to participate in the TPP.