Originally China was afraid that high labor and environmental standards in a future TPP would disadvantage it since China has neither.
I'm a little surprised that China is still opposed to TPP since most labor and environmental organizations don't think much of TPP's labor and environmental standards. You would think that would make TPP more acceptable to China, even if they are not a part of it in case.
The Russian Duma chief said that the TPP was being formed in an atmosphere of secrecy, and that it could be described as a closed structure because neither Russia nor China have been invited to participate in the process. Naryshkin also expressed concern over the possible future replacement of the WTO by the TPP and similar economic blocs, saying that Russia and China are jointly opposed to such a scenario.
“Universal rules of international trade must be discussed in no place other than the WTO, and all interested parties must take part in this discussion. Russia and China will continue to defend this position in various international organizations,” Naryshkin told reporters after the meeting.
It is interesting that China and Russia are such defenders of the WTO. The one good thing about the WTO is that practically every country in the world belongs to it but that also makes it difficult to change existing trade rules in the organization.
Of course, the fact that the WTO has very weak standards on labor rights and the environment may be one reason that China and Russia would like to keep it in charge of trade rules. Weak labor and environmental laws are a major Chinese trade advantage. Russia exports oil and other environmentally damaging products so any higher environmental standards would be bad for their export markets.
If I was Hillary I would distance myself form this burning dumpster fire before Trump starts hammering about this in the coming months.
If Hillary and Bernie want to distance themselves from this, that is fine. But don't do anything just out of fear that Trump will start hammering (demagoguing?) about something in the future. He is going to be demagoguing about a lot of things. We should be ready for it but not afraid.
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