by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Barry Ellsworth,
Trenton, Canada: Canada and 10 other countries reached an agreement Tuesday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal many thought dead after the U.S. pulled out of negotiations.
But after two-days of talks in Tokyo, the deal was struck and the countries expect to follow with an official signed agreement by early March.
The agreement comes after Canada made international news when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to agree to the proposed TPP11 – so named because 11 countries are included – at a conference in Vietnam in November.
Trudeau said Canada wanted provisions for environmental and labor rights. The deal includes stronger provisions in those areas.
The TPP underwent a few incarnations before becoming reality in Tokyo.
It was thought dead after the U.S., on the orders of President Donald Trump, pulled out of negotiations a year ago. Trump said the agreement would cost American jobs.
And in Vietnam, a deal was expected to be reached but Trudeau shied away at the last minute.
The importance of the new deal, from Canada’s perspective, is heightened because the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the U.S. and Mexico are contentious. Trump is threatening to kill that deal if provisions favoring Americans, particularly in the auto sector, are not included.
The sixth round of NAFTA negotiations began Tuesday in Montreal.
The TPP, which slashes tariffs on goods imported and exported, gives Canada access to Asian nations – with a total population of 796.7 million people – and the Japan economy is the third largest economy in the world.
The 11 countries have a combined GDP of $12.4 trillion and includes Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics, World
Hanoi, (IANS) Even though ratification of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has stalled in the US, President Barack Obama said he’s still “confident” the trade deal will earn the support of Congress.
“I remain confident we are going to get it done, and the reason I’m confident is because it is the right thing to do. It’s good for the country, it’s good for America, it’s good for the region, it’s good for the world,” Obama was quoted by RT online during a joint press conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi.
Leaders signed the 12-nation TPP, which includes the US and Vietnam as members, back in February, but it still requires ratification from each country’s lawmakers before it can go into effect.
That process has stumbled, though, as public outcry against international trade deals increases. In the US in particular, all three major-party presidential candidates have come out against the deal.
In Vietnam, Obama reiterated why he believes the TPP was so important, noting that the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing part of the world and represents a huge market for the US. He said the TPP would eliminate some 18,000 tariffs that have been placed on American goods sold in Asia.
“I have not yet seen a credible argument that once we get TPP in place we are going to be worse off,” he said. “We are demonstrably better off. American workers and American businesses are better off if we get this deal passed.”
However, opponents have railed against the TPP from the outset, criticizing the secret, years-long negotiations and arguing that it will primarily benefit large corporations, not workers. Protesters have argued that many of the regulations that would be stripped away would negatively affect laborers and the environment.
“It would make it easier to offshore American jobs, and it would push down their wages by putting them in direct competition with workers in Vietnam who don’t make but 65 cents an hour,” Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, told RT.
