asia pacific leaders on track to sign trade deal

[pampango]

7. If there are strong, enforceable provisions on labor rights and the environment, then yes.

And the tea party anti-globalists and the Chinese will be unhappy. Of course, a treaty with strong labor rights and environmental standards will never get through the republican House.

Still such an agreement would be good for the rest of the countries involved, including Canada, Mexico, Japan and Australia. Like the EU with its high-standards trade rules, TPP countries would have something similar.

They can go on without the US. We will just stick with our WTO/NAFTA standards (low to nonexistent) which China loves. Or we can go "cowboy", stop negotiating with other countries and just tell the world what rules we plan to follow. "We are bigger than you. We are exceptional. We don't negotiate, we tell you what we are going to do.