Back To The Future For The United States?

“The reported announcement by United States President Barrack Obama that talks on the Trans Pacific Partnership were to be postponed were a significant concern,” Federated Farmers President Don Nicolson said tonight.

This affects the negotiations between New Zealand and the United States on free trade.

“ We hope that the United States is not going back to the future. In 1930 they enacted the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act, designed to apparently protect the USA economy but history exposes it as a critical mistake the administration made to quell effects of the 1929 United States market crash. The raising of barriers to free trade at the time gave rise to the Great Depression. Let’s hope the new President is sensibly advised” Mr Nicolson said.