longweekend58 wrote on Jan 21
st, 2017 at 1:42pm:
A lot of smarter people than you say otherwise. ANY trade deal brings out the usual suspects who claim it is bad but it is meant to be a DEAL - not a one-way rip-off. and thes trade deals have for decades now lead to the highest standard of living in history.
A mountain of people involved in economics have canned this deal, it does little of benefit for us.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transpacific-partnership-w... Quote:Australia stands to gain almost nothing from the mega trade deal sealed with 11 other nations including United States, Japan, and Singapore, the first comprehensive economic analysis finds.
Prepared by staff from the World Bank, the study says the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030...........
The annual boost to growth would be less than one half of one 10th of 1 per cent.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-29/verrender-dont-expect-ftas-to-live-up-to-t... Quote:And just like the Australia US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA to the cognoscenti) signed a little over a decade ago, the Trans Pacific Partnership has the potential to seriously compromise Australian sovereignty while delivering almost nothing in economic terms...............
Bureaucrats don't usually take to criticising government achievements, but commission chairman Peter Harris wasn't mincing words as he took a microscope to the furious round of recent signings.
Preferential trade deals, according to the report, add to the cost and complexity of international trade.
This wasn't a new message. In 2010, the Commission penned a wide-ranging report into our bilateral and regional trade deals that should have been compulsory reading for our politicians. Sadly, it seems, they took no notice.
The best way a nation can benefit from free trade is to dismantle its own trade barriers, the report concluded. Australia has already done just that............................
The TPP is being driven by America. Like most of these deals, it is politically driven. Fearful of China's rise, America wants to corral its allies under a trade umbrella. In the process, it also wants to further the interests of American corporations and American workers.
Specifically, it wants copyright laws and patents tightened and extended. These are agreements that offer protection to corporations and investors, usually justified on the grounds that innovation requires a reward.
The problem is, protection is the antithesis of free trade. Only a slippery politician could come with a strategy of strengthening protection under the auspices of a free trade deal.