We are blessed to have Susie Hoeller, J.D., CITP, as a TBOWIT Board Member and if you missed TBOWIT’s May 2016 luncheon, you missed a highly educational presentation on TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Susie is a wealth of knowledge on the subject of TPP.

   Susie was able to break down this complex geo-political strategy and trade deal into meaningful segments and talk about Florida's opportunity to grow. Susie specifically mentioned the benefits to exporters, small businesses, supply chains, food safety, and services exporters. She also mentioned TPP's effects on e-commerce & digital freedom, intellectual property creation, environmental protections, first-ever disciplines (to avoid unfair competition), prioritizing of good governance, sustainable development & capacity-building. Susie also dedicated a portion of her presentation on criticisms of TPP including:  no anti-currency manipulation provisions, no climate change provisions, wage level disparities, & etc.  It was a very balanced presentation with lots of good nuggets of information.      

   In Susie's own words,

"It is not perfect but there is no doubt that it will create new, higher paying jobs in Florida (nearly 50,000 by 2025 as projected by the Business Roundtable) and enable Tampa Bay businesses, large and small, to pursue success in exporting their goods, services, digital content and other intellectual property."

Susie ended her presentation with a fun pop quiz involving the flags of the countries involved in TPP. Guess what! China is not one of them. Thank you Susie for taking this daunting trade agreement and making it accessible to us with humor and grace.