An Enormous Corporate Colonization Project Is Underway -- And the US Economy Will Never Be the Same

[pampango]

36. China: "the US aims to lower the advantages of developing countries by labor/environmental standards

(One administration strategy) will be the pursuit of trade agreements that notably do not include China. The most important of these is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement among a growing list of nations bordering the Pacific. It is the Obama administration’s avowed aim to construct a TPP with standards so high — especially rules regarding behavior by state-owned enterprises — that China could never join without transforming its economic system.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/12/10/u-s-china-economic-relations-in-the-wake-of-the-u-s-election/

...the negotiation is subject to the U.S. domestic politics. At the very beginning of the negotiation, the United States reminded other countries that the U.S. Congress would not accept a TPP without strong labor and environmental measures. Obviously, the United States aims to lower the comparative advantages of developing countries so as to create more job opportunities for itself.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/8113289.html

The point of these agreements is not to "eliminate trade restrictions" like tariffs. China does not like them because they perceive that the agreements contain "strong labor and environmental measures" that "lower the comparative advantages of developing countries" (specifically lower wages and weaker environmental regulations).

If the TPP is about adding "strong labor and environmental measures" (as China fears), that would be what many of us have been saying should be a part of our trade agreements. Since Canada and Mexico are part of these negotiations, "strong labor and environmental measures" would apply to our NAFTA partners as well, something missing in the original NAFTA and not added subsequently.