The start of a piece in yesterday’s TheStreet summarized a common viewpoint on the US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, when it said: “You can’t lose what you never had…”  In fact, you can. It is becoming increasingly obvious that American companies are losing ground.  The damage is two-fold—the United States has chosen to sit out from the TPP and it is also not benefiting from the range of trade deals that crisscross Asia, giving preferences to competitors in the region in key markets.  Adam Behsudi nicely showed this week in Politico how international trade agreements are directly affecting farmers from one county in Iowa.