USA eyes food exports to growing Asia under TPP trade pact

The Obama administration counts the pact as a centerpiece of its strategy of rebalancing USA military & diplomatic resources towards Asia, where China has develop in to more and more assertive.

Since details of the agreement were released two weeks ago, the reaction from congressional Republicans has been fairly muted. Right now a lot of drugs companies in the United States are mad at me because they said ‘how come we didn’t get more protection?’

Connolly said the 28 Democrats who support trade promotion authority (TPA) or fast-track, which will streamline the deal through Congress, “are pretty solid” in their support.

“We need to encourage equal footing participation and extensive consultation and make free trade arrangements open and inclusive to the extent possible”, Xi said in a speech.

Obama leverage against China over issues such as its land reclamation in the contested South China Sea and cyber attacks linked to China on U.S. corporate and government sites. He said he hoped for a resolution to be reached “sometime in early to mid-2016”.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a long term investment in security and universal human rights especially in combatting corruption and making progressive governments.

By opening new markets in Japan, Vietnam, and other countries, we are giving our producers access to new customers and expanding their sales.

He said worldwide trade can bring countries and regions closer, noting how European countries had formed the European Union after World War II. “It’s hard to believe that … five years from now, that the U.S.is then going to have the oomph to go ahead with a labor case because there will be a lot more commercial pressure not to”.

A war room – the White House calls it a campaign center – has been re-launched to beat back efforts to derail the deal and reassure any lawmakers wavering on the agreement.

China has had success enlisting countries aside from the USA to join its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and is promoting investment related to its dual “Silk Road” trading routes to Europe – one overland and one by sea.

“The TPP’s groundbreaking provisions on small business and e-commerce – along with thousands of cuts in foreign tariffs and key reductions in non-tariff barriers – would enable more of America’s smaller exporters to compete and win in growing markets around the Pacific Rim”, according to the report authored by Ed Gerwin, PPP’s senior fellow for trade. Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Mr. Obama met at the G-20, is skipping APEC, sending Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his place.

“We can diversify exports to nontraditional markets”, he said. “At the end of the election period, there will be sobriety”.