Partnership Trans-Pacific: It means nothing

Posted on May 13, 2015 by editor - No Comments ↓

Kevin Granville | Tra Mi translation

Like a giant container ships in dock, trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is about to anchor in Washington.

A container ship to dock in Tokyo. Photo: Kazuhiro Nogi / Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

This booklet huge and secret, until about 30 chapters, and is still continuing negotiations after nearly 10 years of negotiations. It will set new terms for trade investment and business between the United States and 11 countries Pacific Ven other - a group of countries beyond the total annual domestic product nearly 28 trillion red- la, about 40% of global GDP and a third of world trade.

TPP Proponents say it would bring benefits for all countries involved, and it will "unlock opportunities" and "addressing the very important issue of the 21st century in the world economy bridge ", and that it was drafted in a way to encourage more water, maybe even China will also join in. Congress passed as one of the ultimate goals in this term of President Obama, but he faces stiff opposition from almost all Democrats.

Opponents in the USA see TPP largely a written agreement for the business world, encourages the continued export of manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries while restricting competition and encourage price higher for pharmaceuticals and other high-value products by spreading American standards to protect patents to other countries. A provision allowing multinational corporations can not admit those provisions and rulings of the Special Tribunal are being backlash.

Which countries participate?

Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, and the United States.

Why TPP, and why at this time?

This Treaty is a major component of the policy of "rotation axis" of President Obama to Asia. It is seen as a way of binding the trading partners in the Pacific Coastal closer to the United States during the upgrade challenge for China, which is strong in Asia, has flatly rejected from the negotiations, at least for now.

It is seen as a means to solve some festering issues that have become obstacles while global trade is soaring, including e-commerce, financial services and media Internet across the border.

There are also issues relating to traditional trade. The United States is keen to establish trade agreements with five of the official participating TPP countries - Japan, Malaysia, Brunei, New Zealand and Vietnam - and strengthen the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), agreed existing agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Moreover, the efforts of global trade was staggered (such as the Doha round of World Trade Organization, WTO), the treaty of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is billed as one document with an "open architecture" written easily applied to other Asian countries, and to provide a model for other initiatives underway, such as the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Some of the issues on the negotiating table is what?

Tariffs and quotas | Often used to protect domestic industries with cheap foreign goods, import duties once a standard, a feature of the trade policy, and bring large revenue for the US Treasury in the 19th century after the economic crisis in the 1930s and World War II, the United States led a movement toward freer trade.

Photo: A factory making shoes (United Development) in Vietnam. US shoe import tax. Source: Aaron Joel Santos / The New York Times

Today, the United States and most developed countries at export tax, but still some. United States, for example, still protect the domestic sugar market before the global suppliers selling lower price and are taxed on shoe imports, while Japan imposed heavy taxes on agricultural products such as rice , meat and milk. TPP treaty was an effort almost creating a free trade area in the Pacific Ven.

Environmental Standards, Labor and Intellectual Property | About US negotiators insist that the TPP will seek to create a level playing field by imposing strict standards on labor and the environment with commercial partners, and monitoring of intellectual property rights.

Field Data | US wants trade agreements Pacific solve some of the problems that have arisen since the agreement was negotiated previously. One is that the participating countries agreed not to block the flow of data across borders using the Internet, and does not require that the server must be placed in the interior to conduct business in that country. This proposal has caused concern for some countries which Australia is an example, said that this provision may conflict with laws that protect the privacy and regulations for personal data stored overseas.

Service | A major objective of the Trans-Pacific pact are increasing opportunities for service industries, accounting for most of the private jobs in the US economy. The United States has a competitive advantage in a wide range of services, including financial, technical, software, education, legal and information technology. Although these services are not taxed, the restrictions and requirements of the country for investment by many developing countries used to protect local businesses.

State Enterprise | About US negotiators have discussed the need to address the bias is usually reserved for state enterprises - enterprises directly or indirectly belongs to the government. Although Vietnam and Malaysia have many such groups, the United States also has a number of such (eg the postal service and Fannie Mae and services to help low-income Americans to the average mortgage ). Final treaty could include provisions ensuring relatively neutral competition while keeping the door open to be able to accept China's accession to the treaty in the future.

Why secret?

Office of the US Trade Representative said

"The negotiations need to communicate with each other by frankness, creativity and trust each other at a high level. To create the conditions necessary to achieve success in negotiating trade agreements and investment complex, national governments are negotiating regularly hold these proposals and their communication with each other in secrecy. "

But the previous trade agreements have been notified more openly and despite the efforts of confidentiality, some of the documents of the treaty have leaked out, with WikiLeaks and other organizations .

Why China is not present in the TPP?

China has never expressed the intention to join the negotiations, but in the past have monitored the negotiation pact with concern, as this could be a threat to the United States tried to strengthen bonds relations with trading partners in Asia. But recently, when negotiations were accelerated, high-level officials of China have seemed easy to accept this treaty over, and even suggested that they might want to join in the future. Meanwhile, TPP gave China some opportunities while they are pursuing a trade agreement in the region itself, as the Silk Road Initiative in Central Asia.

US officials, while determining that they considered TPP agreement is part of an effort to counter the influence of China in the region, but still say they are hoping that the "open architecture" of TPP China will promote participation with the important economic powers such as South Korea.

The shadow of NAFTA, and the debate in Washington

President Bill Clinton has the support of Congress for NAFTA, but most of the lawmakers in his party voted against. Source: Doug Mills / Associated Press

NAFTA, which was approved by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has contributed to the strong development of trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada. All three countries export more goods and services to two other countries, greater cross-border investment, and the US economy has added more millions of jobs since then. But of course not all of these results are caused by NAFTA, and national interests are not equal: the US has a trade surplus with Mexico when little pact was signed, has quickly become a deficit Commerce, more than $ 50 billion a year. NAFTA critics also said that job growth in the United States regardless of the number of jobs lost to Mexico or Canada; AFL-CIO organization that 700,000 US jobs were lost or moved because of NAFTA.

NAFTA was an important victory for President Clinton after hard struggle in Parliament, where he won the support of Democrats just enough to secure contracts through treaty. Then votes in the House 234-200 and the Senate 61-38.

Obama can only hope such results. Most Democratic lawmakers have vehemently opposed the deal Trans-Pacific trade; unions and progressive groups were lining up to block a bill known as the Trade Promotion Authorization; this bill would allow the White House to present the trade pact to Congress to vote for or unfavorable decision and not be modified, amended. But President Obama has alliances with business groups and leaders now Republicans to achieve results for the TPP. Those who bet believe that the votes will Nazi crunch, but think that the TPP has a good chance to get through.

© 2015 DCVOnline
If reprinted, please read "Rules criticized reprinted articles from DCVOnline.net "

---

Source: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal: What It Would Mean .
By Kevin Granville, The New York Timesx, May 11, 2015.