At least when we’re not part of it:
The United States will receive no preferential treatment if it decides it wants to rejoin the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership that Canada and its 10 countries were to sign Thursday, says a senior Canadian trade official…
The new TPP, known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, contains 22 provisions that were suspended from the original 12-country agreement, which included the U.S.
Under the terms of letting new members into the CPTPP, all 11 members would have to agree to lift those suspended provisions.
The United States has “gone from being a leader to actually being the No. 1 antagonist and No. 1 source of fear,” said Jeffrey Wilson, head of research at Perth U.S.-Asia Center at the University of Western Australia. “If you’re a trade policy maker in Asia, your No. 1 fear is that Trump is going to take a swing at you.”
He added that such fears could prompt countries, however reluctantly, to tether themselves more closely to China. “The U.S. is really delivering the region to China at the moment,” Mr. Wilson said.
The new agreement — known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership — will drop tariffs drastically and establish sweeping new trade rules in markets that represent about a seventh of the world’s economy. It will open more markets to free trade in agricultural products and digital services around the region. While American beef faces 38.5 percent tariffs in Japan, for example, beef from Australia, New Zealand and Canada will not.
The agreement gives Canada better access to the very Asian markets the Eejit is attacking with his tariffs. It has also enabled Canada to open trade negotiations with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil). The further this goes, the less inclined these countries will be to open bilateral negotiations with the United States, particularly given Trump’s mercurial nature.
Remember, TPP was in part intended as a bulwark against China’s trade practices. Now, the revised TPP is looking like a defense against our own instead. It wasn’t perfect, TBS; but it’s hard to see how this outcome is better — especially when His Orangeness wants a return to Hawley-Smoot. Way to piss off pretty much everybody, Donnie.
Thursday, Mar 8, 2018 · 4:56:19 PM +00:00
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And South Korea is eyeing the pact and considering joining:
Korea will decide whether to join a fledgling Pacific trade pact within the year after looking into its impact on the national economy and consulting with member states, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Thursday.