President Obama Defends the TPP
President Barack Obama interviewed by Kai Ryssdal – Marketplace
Keep in mind Kai that we started this five years ago, with the basic proposition that the Asia-Pacific region is the most populous, fastest-growing region in the world. And since 95 percent of the world’s market is outside our borders, we’ve got to make sure that we’re selling in other countries’ goods made in America and services designed and produced here in the United States. And so we gathered together these 11 countries.
Watch Obama’s remarks on TPP to agricultural and business leaders
We get this ratified and we start implementing, we will strengthen the hand of reformers inside of China who recognize that the model that they’ve been operating under is not going to work forever. Part of what’s happening in China right now is that they have an old-style model of cheap labor, exporting manufacturing goods, not a lot of high-value-added, not a lot, a big, strong domestic market. If they’re going to sustain the growth that they’ve had over the last 20 years, if they hope to match the growth levels that they’ve seen, they’ve got to open up their markets, they’ve got to provide protection for patents and intellectual property, they’ve got to end the subsidies to these state-owned enterprises.
A woman from the Muong ethnic tribe works on her green tea hills which produce black tea for export in Tan Son, Vietnam on Oct. 4, 2015. (Reuters)
Oh No, We Forgot about China – the Flaw at the Centre of the TPP
Peter Robertson – The Conversation
…Because tariff barriers are all already very low between the member countries, any economic gains that might be realised by mutual concessions are likely to be exceedingly small. Reasonable estimates come up with numbers like one tenth of a percent of GDP. This, as the Nobel Laureate and economist Paul Krugman notes, is hardly world-shaking.
Second, the TPP is an international club with exclusive benefits for members. Like any selective club, it’s not so much about who you let in, but who you keep out – like China.
This exclusivity and security baggage is the second flaw.
If, as they claim, the twelve TPP countries really wanted to promote economic growth and raise living standards, they would have sought to include China from the outset. The omission of China is of course strategic. But it is further cause for scepticism over the claim that the TPP is designed to generate economic benefits. The benefits would have been much larger with China and larger still with other countries.
Director of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicine, Peter Maybarduk speaks during a protest outside the hotel where the Trans-Pacific Partnership Ministerial Meetings are being held in Atlanta, Georgia on Sept. 30, 2015. (Reuters)
Three Reasons to Support the TPP Agreement
Kabir Sehgal – CNBC
The U.S. exported more than $622 billion in goods in 2013 — nearly $2 billion each day — to TPP member countries in 2013, according to the U.S. trade office. Because we live in a highly interconnected and competitive world, price discrepancies caused by tariffs can make U.S. products less affordable abroad. For instance, Vietnam slaps a 27-percent tariff on automotive parts manufactured in the United States…. The TPP would lessen these tariffs, over the course of several years, creating a more level playing field among countries that are already trading copiously with each other.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe holds a news conference in Tokyo on Oct. 6, 2015. (Reuters)
The TPP is an economic means to achieve a geopolitical vision, to rebalance America’s priorities and increase its influence in Asia. For one, the agreement draws closer together two allies — the United States and Japan….
The TPP comes with strict guidelines on environmental and labor standards, too. It addresses overfishing and illegal logging. It also seeks to limit the trafficking of endangered species.
