Obama trade proposal threatens more Minnesota jobs (pledged in his State of the Union speech Tuesday

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_5435

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor

13 February 2013

ST. PAUL - President Obama’s plan to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement threatens thousands of Minnesota jobs, according to a new analysis released by the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition.

“We intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Obama pledged in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night. If enacted, it would become the largest free trade agreement in U.S. history.

Initially it would involve a limited number of countries, such as Australia, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico and Vietnam, but is also being negotiated as a “docking agreement” that would be open for any nation in the Asia-Pacific region to join.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership would accelerate job loss in Minnesota by forcing local employers to compete with companies that take advantage of sweatshop working conditions in places like Vietnam and Malaysia, which are undercutting even Chinese manufacturers,” said Josh Wise, director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition.

FULL story at link.

[jwirr]

1. Yes, that was the one part of the speech that made me say "Sorry

Sir, but I do not trust you on this one."

[pampango]

2. It's meant to deal with China by raising labor, environmental and other standards which China

cannot do without endangering the CPC's control of the country.

Here's the China People's Daily (the official CPC newspaper) take on why the TPP is bad for China:

...the negotiation is subject to the U.S. domestic politics. At the very beginning of the negotiation, the United States reminded other members 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

And a report from the Pew Organization on the Obama's administration's strategy for dealing with China:

(One administration strategy) will be the pursuit of trade agreements that notably do not include China. The most important of these is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement among a growing list of nations bordering the Pacific. 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 TPP will not be the "the largest free trade agreement in U.S. history" if the Trans-Atlantic trade agreement with the EU goes through. The EU and the US have the two largest economies in the world.

One benefit of the TPP, if 'strong labor and environmental' requirements are in it (and if the strategy is to make China less competitive, they will have to be), these requirements will apply to NAFTA countries since they are all proposed members of the TPP.