The mysterious TPP trade deal is finally public, and people hate it

The Obama administration’s bid to expand the worldwide sharing of health-care data may be undercut by a broad exemption for protectionism laws in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade researcher told me.

“We have a whole-of-government, whole-of-White-House effort under way”, said Mr Michael Froman, Mr Obama’s trade representative, who has negotiated the voluminous agreement since 2009.

For the apparel and textile industries, the trade accord is structured like other trade agreements. This review process enables Congress to carefully scrutinize the agreement before it is signed, and if necessary, recommend changes to the agreement. The TPP represents the highest standard of trade agreements and provides the foundation for increased access and lower tariffs to the Pacific Rim markets.

The letter, released just hours after the full text of the agreement became public after years of secret negotiations, is basically a formality.

However, a leading critic of the deal, Auckland University Law Professor Jane Kelsey, said the TPP was set to become “fodder for the USA election cycle” as February 5 next year would be the earliest Obama could sign.

It will take time to consider the full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership, but it is clear that numerous issues raised by critics as risks have been overstated, says ExportNZ. He says NAFTA cost the UAW thousands of jobs. It eliminates 18,000 taxes that various countries put on American goods.

The countries have pledged to “avoid unfair currency practices and refrain from competitive devaluation”, according to a fact sheet provided by the U.S. Treasury Department on a joint declaration that accompanies the deal.

The TPP in a nutshell is a trade deal between 12 countries: the USA, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The TPP has been promoted as a 21st century trade agreement, but this free trade deal would take American workers backward, not forward. NFU president Roger Johnson said “if we enter this agreement, our trade deficit, already exceeding $500 billion per year, will continue to rise, not fall”.

Last month, United States presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton came out against the TPP, saying she was not in favour of what she had learned about it. She joins rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders in her stance against the deal.