Australia: TPP could change the story of a rising China and a declining America

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/tpp-could-change-the-story-of-a-rising-china-and-a-declining-america-20150730-ginnwq.html

TPP could change the story of a rising China and a declining America
July 31, 2015
John Garnaut



So, Tony Abbott is about to lock Australia into a new 12-nation club, the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership. Rather than celebrating him as a hero, however, there are economists who believe the "unlimited potential" that the Prime Minister has been talking about will all flow to a handful of US corporations at the expense of overall trade. Worse, there are well-founded fears that Abbott's TPP will be toxic for public health.

Abbott shouldn't be surprised by this cynical reception. John Howard touted $5.6 billion in annual benefits from a bilateral deal with George W. Bush in the aftermath of the second Iraq War, but it turned out to be a dud. Not only did the US FTA siphon money from Australian taxpayers and patients to American pharmaceutical companies, it might have destroyed about $53 billion more trade than it created.

The TPP is a vastly more ambitious agreement than the US FTA. It contains about 30 chapters of complex rules, most of which have never been seen in any deal before. These rules are designed to be invasive and there is no question that the implications will be profound.

~snip~

But there is another huge dimension to the TPP which explains why the Obama administration has fought so hard to push it through a hostile Congress. Obama needs the TPP so that his "rebalancing" to Asia does not look so unbalanced.