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Trans Pacific Partnership Farce


Flashermac
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The controversial TPP was a lose-lose idea from the start for Australia, so now that Trump has consigned it to the dustbin, why does PM Turnbull continue the farce, asks James O'Neill.

 

 

 

THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP) has been seven years in the making with final agreement among its seven participant nations only being finalised in late 2016. To date, only Japan and New Zealand have ratified it and they look like being the only ones to do so.

 

The negotiations were shrouded in secrecy and, even after the details became public, the mainstream media made very little effort to shed light on its contents. There are a number of reasons why this has been the case.

 

First, to describe it as a trade agreement is and always has been a misnomer. Only seven of its 29 chapters actually dealt with trade.

 

Secondly, the agreement provides for the resolution of disputes between parties – whether countries, companies or individuals – that are the antithesis of long established procedures under which legal disputes are resolved. That is, by an open court process that is transparent throughout and with the parties having a right of appeal (or appeals) against an adverse decision.

 

Instead, the TPP provided for a system that was non-judicial, with no right of appeal and with the power to override the laws of sovereign nations. It represented an unprecedented attack on a nation’s sovereignty.

 

Thirdly – and as a corollary – it invested enormous power in corporations against the ordinary citizen who had little or no redress. As such, it was a continuation of trends that have accelerated over the past 30 years of the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of an ever-diminishing number of individuals and corporations.

 

Fourthly, although wrongly promoted as a trade deal, the objectives of the TPP were at heart part of a fundamental geopolitical policy initiated and promoted by former U.S. President Obama. That policy had as its core objective the maintenance of U.S. corporate and military power in the Asia-Pacific region. There was an equivalent strategy in Europe with the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

 

The two agreements, TPP and TTIP, excluded China and Russia. This was not a coincidence. Those two nations are at the heart of an alternative economic framework that represents the greatest shift in economic and geopolitical power in the past 100 years. A discussion of that process is outside the scope of the present article.

 

The level of public opposition to the agreement grew as people became more aware of its contents and implications. The most vocal opposition has come from President Trump. During the recent election campaign he was a forthright critic.

In his 'Declaring American Economic Independence' speech back in June, in which he pledged to withdraw the U.S. from the TPP, Trump said:

“The TPP will undermine our economy and it will undermine our independence.â€

[more]

 

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https://independenta...l-thinking,9957

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There is also the argument that the TPP was good for non USA, but bad for USA.

 

I agree with you, Jane Kelsey in NZ, was spitting tacks for the olympics when the TPP was going forward, but now can't quite bring herself to say Trump's done a good thing.

 

"However, long-time critic of the TPP Jane Kelsey said it was a crazy idea to pursue a deal pushed by the US, when the US had pulled out of it. " (So if they were still in it, she'd support it?)

 

"Ms Kelsey told Morning Report the TPP had not fallen over because the US was not in it, it had fallen over because the model was no longer seen as one that serves the interests of people." (Nothing to do with Trump's executive order, apparently)

 

"She said pushing ahead without America was pointless." (Again, so if they were still in it, she'd support it?)

 

Me no Trump supporter, just illustrating the illogic, of what can safely be called a serial protestor.

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