You know, of course, that the TPP is already a done deal., But we should fight it anyway.

[MADem]

60. Well, generally speaking, I agree with what you are saying, simplistic or not.

That said, is this TPP really about "Third World Countries" or something else? One analysis I read posited that it was, in actual fact, a sharp elbow to China's eye.

This is what I'm trying to tease out--but the more I start looking (and I've been lazy, I've glossed over this topic in my reading) the less, not more, I know.

One thing I do know is that NOBODY knows what's in this damn thing. Now, I can understand why they wait until it is a finished product--too many cooks spoil the broth, and all that--but the whole "You got ninety days to read this thing and say Yes To the Dress" is where there's a problem, I think.

Something between "Three Months" on the one hand, and "Let's Dither Forever, As We Sometimes Do" is probably what's needed--a "Medium Track" if you will--say, six months of discussion, then let's decide.

The countries we are negotiating with to craft this agreement are not a bunch of hellholes, many of them have a lotta cash (Brunei) or are otherwise highly developed (Australia is hardly a 3rd World sewer--in many ways they have a better QOL than we do). This isn't about giving the "poor losers" a leg up, exclusively, though there may be some of that happening--hard to know, though, since no one has coughed up the five "trade" chapters that we'd need to see out of the 29 in this thing.

I have to chuckle a bit at how so many people (and I am not directing this at you) find the "EU" just grand (and why ARE those troublesome Brits so reluctant to fully participate, eh what?), but they object to us participating in any kind of economic or trade accommodation that would level the playing field across nations. It's kind of disingenuous to say that we want to lift up the less advantaged, and then position ourselves as protectionists. I don't know what the solution is, though, to Theoretical Altruism fighting with Practical Protectionism. If we're to look at this as a zero sum game, if we want that poor person in that mud hut to work an eight hour day with a two week vacation at a decent wage, something's gotta give. I guess we want the 'giving' to happen in nations other than ours, given the current economic/jobs climate.