TPP: do you truly give a crap?

[pampango]

46. I believe they have made clear that is the intent. I don't think it will matter.

Congress is not going to approve 'fast track' authority for Obama to negotiate the TPP. As Sherrod Brown said: "They (republicans) don’t want to give him power certainly with the Environmental Protection Agency. They don’t want to give him power on human (and labor) rights. They don’t want to give him power on health care. Do they want to give him power on international trade?”

Liberals in congress don't want him to have fast track authority. Tea party politicians don't trust him to have it. Without the up-or-down vote that goes with fast trace, the republican-dominated congress will be able to delete anything they don't like. If there are strong labor and environmental standards or not won't matter much when republicans delete them from the TPP and pass it without those provisions.

On the question of fast-track authority, 62 percent of respondent opposed the idea, with 43 percent “strongly” opposing it. Broken down by political affiliation, only Democrats that identify as “liberal” strongly favor the idea. Predictably, a strong Republican majority oppose giving the president such authority, with both conservative and moderates oppose it by a ratio of 85 percent or higher.

http://www.ibtimes.com/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-poll-only-strongest-obama-supporters-want-him-have-fast-track-1552039

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