Saturday, October 10, 2015

Week 4: Trans-Pacific Partnership (Kayla Lor)


The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) is an agreement that is meant to help encourage trading amongst certain countries in the Pacific Rim.  It is meant to make sure that those countries in the Pacific Rim will create foreign trade policies that will help ensure to make their own country look easiest for corporations to establish.  Although this idea seems to be appealing as well as an economically clever, it leaves environmental scars and the exploitation of human labor.  Mel Gurtov heavily criticizes and breaks down the cons of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in their article “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Deeply Flawed Partnership”.  Gurtov explains in their article that the TTP states that it could create thousands of jobs for people, but what it fails to clarify is that it will create most of the jobs in different countries (mostly for low-wages).  TPP will also make it more difficult for workers to unionize, especially since if these jobs are in another country.  In addition, TPP will also damage environmental health and safety laws.  Something that I saw was interesting was that another point that Gurtov mentions about in their article are that ultimately, the existence to TPP comes down to China.  TPP could be used in a way to allow China to participate in the trade but without making the rules.  This will allow the United States to have some control over China.  So ultimately the question comes down to this, is TPP about the United States encouraging an easy trading atmosphere to help enhance the lives of American citizens or are they just finding a way to control a big power country like China?



Works Cited:

Gurtov, M. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Deeply Flawed Partnership" Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 13, Issue 20, No. 1, May 13, 2015.


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