re: #33 KGxvi

I’m still annoyed that nobody was willing to really defend the TPP in 2016. Not just important for economic growth, but for stability in the region. Now we get to cede more leadership to China… yay!

Well, a ton of the opposition to the TPP came from portside (in this country, anyway) - I recall seeing lefty blogs full of fulminating screeds about evil “corporatization” and viewing TPP as a combination of sweatshop exploitation and copyright warfare (i.e. forcing compliance with restrictive US IP law), etc.

And on the other side, there was a sort of sensitivity on the Right that it would turn into a Pacific NAFTA, with a load of negative political connotations (mainly that wasn’t enough grift involved to buy off workers’ “job-losing” complaints).

So TPP had major opposition on both sides of the political spectrum here: and (as is not uncommon with complex international-trade negotiations) the Obama Admin couldn’t sell the deal with simple sloganeering - which Republicans weren’t going to go for in any case because Obama (and elections).

Of course, the notion that Donald Trump’s backward and simpleminded notions of “dealmaking” might - rather than benefiting the US’ trade position re the Pacific Rim - fuck it up mainly to China’s profit didn;t seem to occur to anyone….