Look. I'm not trying to start another pointless struggle session. Far from that, I want each and every one of us to confront this most strange attempt at multilateralism by two of our favourite existing socialisms.

There's no substantial article on the environment. Not a single word on climate or pollution. And nothing on labour issues.

I get that the whole thing is brand new and the member countries will probably amend to add more to the document in later stages.

But now is the point the heads of governments go back to their respective legislative body for ratification. Again, nothing on labour, the environment or the climate.

I want us Chapos to confront the likelihood that existing socialist experiments are faltering, even abandoning, a key promise of socialism to workers: reducing work hours for more leisure time. That, and no idea how trade is going to connect to the climate crisis.

  • KiaKaha [he/him]
    1·
    4 years ago

    I’ll let Professor Jane Kelsey, who led the charge against the TPPA in NZ, explain:

    There were huge protests against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Why not with this?

    Partly, it’s because some of the most controversial aspects of the TPPA (later renamed the CPTPP) weren’t included in this one. Professor Jane Kelsey, who staunchly opposed the TPPA, said those absences showed that citizens had become “wary and weary” of such deals. In particular, she noted that “there is no chapter on state-owned enterprises or government procurement, no right for foreign investors to enforce special rights through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), some intellectual property rights for Big Pharma are absent or diluted, the electronic commerce chapter left out some rules and is not enforceable.”

    When the TPPA protests were happening, the ISDS system and the prospect of Pharmac being weakened were two of the really big sticking points mentioned a lot by protesters.

    So basically it just removes some tariffs, centralised some rules, and reduced waiting times at ports. Nothing transformational. It doesn’t really empower capital in the same way the TPPA did.

    The flip side is that it leaves labour rights and environmental protections broadly down to the signatory states, at least in this agreement. But increasing access to Chinese solar panels is pretty good for climate change.