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Comment by consumer451 | Hacker News Reader

> What can you do about this? Pretty much nothing. China is the second largest economy in the world, and has the second most powerful military.

While there were certainly issues with TPP[0], it would have given us some options in regards to China which we no longer have. AFAIK, that was a large part of the point of TPP.

We could have had Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States in one trading block. This would have given all of these countries immense leverage when dealing with China.

IMO, cancelling TPP has to be the greatest strategic blunder the USA has made in this century.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

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If China doesn't follow WTO and any international laws that go against their benefits, why do you expect this TPP would have any effect on them?

The TPP provides an incentive for all of the countries mentioned - especially the developing ones - not to fall under China’s influence. It’s a soft power bulwark against China, and also a modern trade agreement that respected environment, workers rights and intellectual property to a greater degree than many prior agreements.

China was not included in the TPP as the entire point of the TPP was to strengthen Asian economies other than China.

That's because the TPP contains clauses gifting an override of sovereignty and the political will of the people agaisnt Corporations. Any country attempting to regulate a modern asbestos would find themselves under massive financial penalties.

You need look no further than Philip Morris v. Uruguay to understand the fundamental absolute danger of investor-state dispute settlement to the people of a country.

As such, it was rightly opposed as it had been poisoned by greed against the people. The TPP was profit over people as a result. They could've opposed china with it, but some western oligarchs would've eventually weaponized it against the people.

Disclaimer: I'm aware tobacco interests were explicitly carved out of the TPP. That doesn't save us from anything else in the future, it just shows the root problem of profit over people remained in the TPP.

Well it would have helped if the TPP didn't give the Copyright Cartel everything it wanted.

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