when I find myself shouting "Wrong, wrong, wrong" halfway down the abstract of
the linked document.The TPP is a
made-in-USA initiative. It is
competing for the hearts, minds and wallets of members of the Association of
South East Asian Natives [sic]
(ASEAN)
...
TPP is not only about trade
and investment – and safeguarding and advancing the interests of Hollywood,
research-based pharmaceutical companies and corporate America (as well as
corporate interests in other economically advanced
countries in the region). It
is also about enhancing/restoring U.S. military/political influence in
Asia. In the cloud cuckoo
land where I seem to live we believe
The TPP was previously
known as the Pacific Three Closer Economic
Partnership (P3-CEP), its negotiations launched on the sidelines of the 2002
APEC Leaders'
Meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, by Prime Ministers Helen Clark of
New Zealand,Goh Chok Tong of Singapore and Chilean President
Ricardo Lagos.
Brunei first took part as a full negotiating party in the fifth round of talks
in April 2005, after which the trade bloc
became known as the Pacific-4
(P4).
...
The original agreement was signed by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand
and Singapore on
June 3, 2005, and entered into force on May 28, 2006. It is a
comprehensive free trade agreement, affecting trade in goods, rules of
origin,
trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to
trade, trade in services, intellectual property,
government procurement and
competition policy. Among other things, it called for reduction by 90 percent of
all tariffs between
member countries by January 1, 2006, and reduction of all
trade tariffs to zero by the year 2015. Wikipedia , and your doubts about Wikipedia should
be at least partly
assuaged by downloading the official document from Footnote 1 in that
article.
The United States has since steamrollered the scene, afraid of
small nations working things out for themselves, and especially afraid of
the
insistence on all trade tariffs to be reduced to zero by 2015. The US
appears to be bringing a negative negotiating stance
to the table by
introducing Intellectual Property requirements that the smaller nations
find unpalatable, thus hoping to mollify
the customs tariffs in physical trade
items.
OK, I've ploughed thru 12 pages of Executive Summary which bend
closer to the truth by acknowledging that the TPP we see before us
today is not
the TPP its founders had in mind. Do I need to finish the remaining 130 pages
just to learn that Admiral Perry
still sails the Pacific, with Ambassador Cushing
?
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