SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The renamed TPP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership has been signed by 11 countries. https://globalnews.ca/news/4069924/tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-signing-canada/
Thankfully, Trump's withdrawal from the TPP allowed the Canadian people to persuade their government to push for removal of most of the contentious IP obligations that the US demanded, http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2017/11/rethinking-ip-in-the-tpp/. America is considering rejoining, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/politics/mnuchin-tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-trump.html
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will reduce tariffs in countries that together amount to more than 13 per cent of the global economy – a total of $10 trillion. With the United States, it would have represented 40 per cent.
Even without the United States, the deal will span a market of nearly 500 million people, making it one of the globe's three largest trade agreements, according to Chilean and Canadian trade statistics.
[...] Trump has also threatened to dump the North American Free Trade Agreement unless the other two members of the pact, Canada and Mexico, agree to provisions that Trump says would boost U.S. manufacturing and employment. He argues that the 1994 accord has caused the migration of jobs and factories southward to lower-cost Mexico.
[...] The 11 member countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Entropy on Sunday March 11 2018, @02:51AM (16 children)
13%? A whole 13%..
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Sulla on Sunday March 11 2018, @03:07AM (9 children)
Always felt like the too-secret-to-read TTP would have been greatly beneficial to the people who are already wealthy and probably have made our defecit worse in the meantime. Why would the Chinese sign a deal that helps us when they are already doing a good job and having us send them money.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:33AM (3 children)
The TPP is an Obama number. And it's a horrible deal. The ISDS, the investor-state dispute settlement, very smart lawyering. That one would have been great for our hedge funds, for our private equity, for so much of our financial industry. But overall the TPP is a disaster. A very bad deal to punish the United States, a rape of our country. It's ridiculous. I reversed it. It's a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone. If you look at the way China and India and almost everybody takes advantage of the United States -- China in particular, because they're so good. It's the number 1 abuser of this country. And if you look at the way they take advantage, it's through currency manipulation. It's not even discussed in the almost 6,000-page agreement. Incredible!
As I said in Davos, I would do TPP if we were able to make a substantially better deal. The deal was terrible, the way it was structured was terrible. If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP. I like bilateral, because if you have a problem, you terminate. You don't have that same option with TPP.
We’re going to stop the ridiculous trade deals that have taken everybody out of our country and taken companies out of our country, and it’s going to be reversed. I think you’re going to have a lot of companies come back to our country.
A couple of people in the Republican party say Trump is against trade. I'm not against trade. I just want to make better deals. I think it's great. I think having trade is great. I want to make better deals.
I'm always so amazed when I see somebody else talking about my viewpoints. My viewpoints are very simple: I want great deals for this country. Somebody said, "are you a free trader?" The answer is yes. But to have free trade we have to have smart people. We don't have smart people representing us. Or we have people who are controlled by the lobbyists, who are controlled by the special interests, by the global special interests. But, yes, I'm a free trader.
But they say, "how do you define your stance on trade?" One of the reporters asked me this question and I said here's my stance on trading: I want to make great deals for the United States. Call it fair trade, call it free trade, there's 10 different names they can give it. I want to make great deals for the people of the United States. I want to bring jobs back. I don't want companies leaving because we don't know what we're doing.
Why are people upset that with free trade, that I like, that I want to make better deals? I said I want to make better deals with Mexico. I want to make better deals with China. They say, "Oh, Trump is messing with free trade." No, I'm messing with bad deals that we can make good. I can make good deals. Why would somebody fight that?
I mean, the U.S. Chamber fights. They say, "Oh, Trump wants to stop free trade." I don't want to stop free trade. I love free trade. But I want to make great deals. I want to take a deal that's faulty -- where we're losing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars a year -- and make it good. Isn't that a positive thing? Okay? I'm fixing them. And if we can't fix them, there are consequences. We won't trade. And you know how long that will last? About 24 hours, before they come to the table. But you have to be able to walk. Every time you want to make a good deal you have to be able to walk. Or you don't have a country. Make America Great Again!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @03:01PM (1 child)
As usual the US is whining , after decades of screwing everyone , rejecting your own signature and pulling out of international treaties you come whining about the trade deals ? You got some balls . We just enjoy your whining as of late and laugh at you. Laugh cause you're getting screwed by Trump and beg for more. Well you elected him , deserve the worst that can happen to you for it. Tradewise , i hope you get left out of all the deals cause your signature carries no weight anymore. NONE .. You became the enemy of everyone , you want to have trade wars with everyone , well ok have them , noone cares about having the US as a partner. You guys screwed over everyone and think we're going to have any sympathy ? LOL ROFL
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday March 11 2018, @03:44PM
A world where China is the superpower is going to be an interesting world. Better hope you are an authorized and recognized ethnicity or you might end up sterile. US control of the world hasn't been great, but when China is done with you there will be a whole lot of crow eating going on.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:39PM
You are very much out of character in regards to your writing style with this reply, but I wanted you to know that. Modding your post can't express that appropriately.
You often nail it, but in this case you let the facts get in the way! Next time step away before submitting and review it again with your internal Trump narrative voice; it may be a good idea also to write it first in an offline document and judge the writing style when in different fonts, to better leap out at you what the differences are since the presentation may be much different.
This way you can help catch the tone/narration and detect a presentation dissonance compared to other times, without focusing too much on the facts. Changing the font or layout in a seperate document will cause just enough difference to get your mind a little off-guard with how it looks different, rather than allowing you to focus too much on the technical accuracy of what you've written. I don't know if you can get 2nd opinions on what's written before its posted, but sometimes a small delay to make sure you're properly in character may be all that you'd need to catch stylization inconsistencies!
Consistency isn't key, because as a leader you need to keep people guessing to some extent. If they figure you out, then you're a follower because you'd be predictable, following yourself if not other leaders. But familiarity/expectation setting is important, to keep it feeling like we're still talking to the same man, even if what the same man has said differs over time.
That, or don't stay up so late, because it changes your personality too much! (and yeah bring the jobs back!)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:26AM (2 children)
Are you just trolling or too stupid to google?
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/free-trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements-concluded-but-not-in-force/cptpp/comprehensive-and-progressive-agreement-for-trans-pacific-partnership-text/ [mfat.govt.nz]
Purpose was to have a trade deal with all economies in the region *EXCLUDING* China to put some economic pressure on China and reduce their leverage in the region. The deal was to leverage US economic impact in the region. Unfortunately, the current US administration and many of the people (like yourself, it seems) in America are too stupid to see this very basic reason. Nevertheless, it's now signed. And if new parties want to come in, they will have no negotiating power anymore.
Which deficit? Because Trump surely made your current account deficit worse. As for trade deficit, I agree, it needs to come down because now America is getting a FREE RIDE. USD is almost like the Bitcoin pyramid scheme - print dollars, get stuff for nothing. So yes, US trade deficit will come down along with your standard of living as you embrace isolationist tendencies. But like with any of these things, the chickens will come home to roost later and then you can blame Obama for starting a trade war (because you know, alternate reality rules in America these days)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @05:56PM (1 child)
The text was actually secret for a long time. Are you trolling or too stupid to remember that?
The purpose was corporate supremacy, which is why it included draconian copyright and patent provisions, as well as international corporate tribunals which would threaten the sovereignty of governments. I suspect you are indeed trolling. If our goal was simply to reduce their leverage, then we could do that without draconian copyright and patent rules, and without corporate tribunals. But the US government is too corrupt for that, so good riddance to the TPP in the US.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:18PM
I found it rather amusing that the moment the US pulled out of the TPP, it's like those whole volume in the TPP dedicated to copyright and patents was simply thrown out. It's amazing how much the other nations were willing to offer up to be in the agreement. Clearly the cost to the nations of faffing about with all the copyright stuff was worth the price of the expanded free markets. Guess it also goes to show how far the US has fallen when their leaving the TPP no longer causes it to implode.
If I were a foreign nation that wanted to see the US taken off its perch at the top of the world, I would want it done in such a way where most of the people in the US didn't even realise that anything had changed. So basically, just like Trump is doing. I really didn't think that it was possible to basically be destroying a country on the global scene while all the time chanting MAGA, but apparently I was wrong on that account.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:33PM
The problem with these trade deals is that they're designed to help the richest. And not only are they not designed with the poor in mind, typically, but they often target the poorest by removing a country's ability to protect their workers against unreasonable conduct. The WTO in particular was a bad idea as environmental and workplace safety regulations could be seen as illegal trade barriers.
What's more, these trade deals are pretty much always better for countries behind the curve than those ahead as it makes it easier to offshore jobs to where labor is cheaper than what domestic workers can afford to work for.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:24PM
It's in the summary. China is not in the TPP.
Of course the TPP is for the benefit of the wealthy, apparently they're going to use their huge wealth to create jobs or something.
My country has wound up gaining bugger-all because we export food, and our "trading" partners love to use their taxpayer's money to prop up farmers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:25AM (4 children)
10 trillion dollars? A whole 10 trillion dollars..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:07AM (3 children)
Yeah, almost as much as the US debt. Talk about small change.
(Score: 1) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 11 2018, @07:11AM (1 child)
Our debt is out of control. It's coming up to $21 trillion. It's not there, it's getting there. Because Bush & Obama left me with a mess. $7 trillion for wars in the Middle East, $29 trillion to bail out our insurance, our banks -- pretty soon it adds up to real money, as the other politicians like to say. They like to say it, they don't do anything about it. I'm the first and only one to do something. We need to get our trade in balance, we can't keep running trade deficits, so I canceled the TPP. Our taxes were much too high, they were killing our economy. So I did the biggest Tax Cut in history -- it's not just a Tax Cut, we had to call it the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, because we found out there were so many jobs that come with that. Our economy has grown tremendously since I was elected.
But to have a strong economy, we need strong infrastructure. My administration is working every day to deliver the world-class infrastructure that our people deserve and, frankly, that our country deserves. That’s why I signed an executive order to dramatically reform the nation’s badly broken infrastructure permitting process.
It took 11 months to build the Empire State Building. But today, it can take as long as a decade and much more than that -- many, many stories where it takes 20 and 25 years just to get approvals to start construction of a fairly routine highway. Highway builders must get up to 16 different approvals involving nine different federal agencies governed by 29 different statutes. One agency alone can stall a project for many, many years, and even decades.
Not only does this cost our economy billions of dollars, but it also denies our citizens the safe and modern infrastructure they deserve. This over-regulated permitting process is a massive self-inflicted wound on our country -- it’s disgraceful -- denying our people much-needed investments in their community.
So that can go out to 20 years, that can go out to about 20 years to get something approved. This is for a highway. I’ve seen a highway recently in a certain state -- I won’t mention its name -- 17 years. I could have built it for four or five million dollars without the permitting process. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but it took 17 years to get it approved and many, many, many, many pages of environmental impact studies.
Obama really did a number on our infrastructure planning. Because he put in a rule that said you have to plan for climate change, for global warming, for rising sea level. You have to plan for flooding. For things that will probably never happen. Big waste of time, big waste of money. Big hoax by the Chinese and the global special interests. So I repealed that rule.
With what I signed, it's going to be less than two years for a highway. So it’s going to be quick, it’s going to be a very streamlined process. And, by the way, if it doesn’t meet environmental safeguards, we’re not going to approve it. Very simple. We’re not going to approve it. I've gotten so many awards for environmental -- people don't know this -- I'm very environmental. I don't need some study to tell me if a project is bad for the environment, I know. And when it's bad I tell them "no."
So my executive order also requires agencies to work together efficiently by requiring one lead agency for each major infrastructure project. It also holds agencies accountable if they fail to streamline their review process. So each agency is accountable. We’re going to get infrastructure built quickly, inexpensively -- relatively speaking -- and the permitting process will go very, very quickly.
No longer will we tolerate one job-killing delay after another. No longer will we accept a broken system that benefits consultants and lobbyists at the expense of hardworking Americans.
Now, I knew the process very well -- probably better than anybody. I had to get permits for this building and many of the buildings I built -- all of the buildings I built in Manhattan and many other places. And I will tell you that the consultants are rich people. They go around making it very difficult. They lobby Congress, they lobby state governments, city governments to make it very difficult so that you have to hire consultants, and that you have to take years and pay them a fortune. So we’re streamlining the process, and we won’t be having so much of that anymore.
No longer will we allow the infrastructure of our magnificent country to crumble and decay. While protecting the environment, we will build gleaming new roads, bridges, railways, waterways, tunnels, and highways. We will rebuild our country with American workers, American iron, American aluminum, American steel. We're doing tariffs on the aluminum, on the steel. On solar panels. We will create millions of new jobs and make millions of American dreams come true.
Our infrastructure will again be the best in the world. We used to have the greatest infrastructure anywhere in the world, and today we’re like a third-world country. We are literally like a third-world country. Our infrastructure will again be the best, and we will restore the pride in our communities, our nation, and all over the United States we’ll be proud again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:50PM
And yet you decided to increase it by over a trillion dollars to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest.
If our debt is so out of control, perhaps the first place to go looking for funding is the people who have it. In most cases you can't balance a budget on cuts alone at some point you have to increase your top line so that there's more to be had at the bottom line.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:49PM
I'll take it! Spare change? Can you spare some change?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12 2018, @11:42AM
Well, the TPP by design left out China, India, Russia, Brazil, and South Africa. It was never intended to be a majority of countries; merely a treaty to boost trade OTHER than where it already is flourishing and covered by other agreements.
America leaving just made it a LOT smaller.