Vol. 79/No. 38 October 26, 2015
Described in the media as a “potentially legacy-making achievement” and a “win” against China by the Barack Obama administration, the deal aims to bind co-signers in a web of common interests while defending markets for exploitation by U.S. capital.
TPP’s 12 signers — U.S., Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — control 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and one-third of the world’s trade. It’s the largest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1993.
The Obama administration also hopes to use TPP as a precedent for cobbling together the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the U.S. and the European Union.
These trade deals are part of a package of moves the Obama administration is making today, including the nuclear deal with Iran and “reset” with Moscow, aimed at defending Washington’s weakening grip as the preeminent power in the capitalist “world order.”
“When more than 95 percent of our potential customers live outside our borders, we can’t let countries like China write the rules of the global economy. We should write those rules,” Obama said Oct. 5.
The U.S. Congress and legislatures in the other countries must ratify TPP. There is substantial opposition from spokespeople in Congress for those who fear they will lose protection from foreign competition. Of course, bosses on all sides argue their case based on “what is best for America.”
Beijing has continued to expand its economic influence, becoming the biggest trade partner with a number of Asian nations. The China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China provide more loans to regimes in the region than the World Bank and the Tokyo-controlled Asia Development Bank combined.
For years Washington has blocked Beijing from getting a position in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In June, the Chinese government responded, launching the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. Many of Washington’s traditional allies in Europe and Asia signed up as shareholders — over Washington’s opposition.
Beijing has also continued to assert it military presence in the region, including construction of several artificial islands in the South China Sea, complete with runways, harbors and new military installations.
TPP is “as important to me as another aircraft carrier,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in April.
Obama and other backers say the TPP will spur growth and exports that can counter the continuing worldwide economic crisis. But TPP won’t touch the roots of the capitalist crisis of contracting production and trade and tightening profit margins.
Negotiations went down to the wire, as the bosses of each country fought for special protections for key industries at home while seeking to lower obstacles to expanding profitable trade at the expense of fellow “partners.”
As is true for all capitalist agreements, this is not a pact of equals. The 12 countries have vastly different economic and cultural development, different levels of productivity, different military and political strength.
The trade union officialdom in the U.S. has campaigned against TPP, arguing along nationalist and class-collaborationist lines that “free trade” competition will not “protect American jobs.” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as well as Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and, after originally helping promote it, Hillary Clinton, have spoken against it.
Meanwhile, Washington continues to expand its military ties to counter China in the Pacific. A recent drill with the Philippine armed forces was the third major exercise this year off that country’s coast. Manila is building facilities at Subic Bay. Popular opposition cost U.S. forces access to the naval base there in 1992 after almost 100 years of occupation, but Washington hopes to place warships and troops there again.
Related articles:
No such thing as an ‘American job’
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home