Trump signs away TTP

Without Washington’s participation, the TPP would have to be renegotiated or altogether scrapped.

Monday’s signing of an executive order, indicates the Trump administration’s resolve to act quickly on campaign promises to end “free trade in favor of fair trade”. The TPP was mainly about invasive corporate rights, not trade.

In 2010 TPP countries even agreed not to release negotiating texts until four years after the deal was done, a complete failing of transparency, while only 600 corporate representatives had full access to TPP texts and a special role in negotiations.

The TPP, championed by the Obama administration, would have included the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It was intended as a trade bloc to counter China.

Opposition to the TPP was one of the key issues of Trump’s campaign, who had described it as “potential disaster” for the US. He said bilateral trade deals with individual TPP countries would be much more beneficial.

The TTP was a massive assault on democracy, with banksters, Big Pharma, Big Oil, agribusiness and tobacco multinationals essentially doing a backroom deal undermining elected authority by stealth.

Vietnam backed out of the pact in November, citing the refusal of the US Congress to ratify the TPP.

The North American Free Trade Association, NAFTA, which eliminated commercial barriers between the US, Canada and Mexico during the Clinton administration, is also up for review.

“We are going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border,” Trump said on Sunday, a day after his inauguration.

Democrat Bernie Sanders also criticised the TTP while Hillary Clinton, supported the trade pact. Countries would have been obliged to conform all their domestic laws and regulations to the TPP’s rules—in effect, a corporate coup d’état. The proposed pact would also have limited how governments can spend their tax dollars with no expiration date.

Failure to conform domestic laws to the rules would have subjected countries to lawsuits before TPP tribunals empowered to authorize trade sanctions against member countries. A leaked investment chapter also showed that the TPP would have expanded the parallel legal system included in NAFTA.

On Monday, Trump assembled chief executives of major US corporations at the White House to discuss lower tax and regulatory measures when doing business within the US.

“The regulations are going to be cut massively, and the taxes will be cut with them,” Trump said, also warning that a “substantial border tax” will be imposed on factories producing goods outside the US.

Trump signed two more executive orders on Monday, which include a freeze on all federal government hiring – with the exception of the US military – and blocking federal funding to US organisations promoting abortion overseas.