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Vol. 79/No. 38 October 26, 2015
(feature article)
Washington promotes Pacific
trade pact as counter to China
BY EMMA JOHNSON
Washington joined the rulers of 11 other capitalist nations in Asia and
the Americas Oct. 5 to announce they had signed the Trans-Pacific
Partnership agreement. The deal has been a key component of the U.S.
rulers’ “pivot” to Asia. Washington seeks to counter China’s growing
economic influence and territorial encroachments in the South China Sea.
The propertied rulers hope to defend U.S. imperialist dominance in the
Pacific, the spoils of their blood-soaked victory in World War II.
Described in the media as a “potentially legacy-making achievement” and
a “win” against China by the Barack Obama administration, the deal aims
to bind co-signers in a web of common interests while defending markets
for exploitation by U.S. capital.
TPP’s 12 signers — U.S., Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — control 40
percent of the world’s gross domestic product and one-third of the
world’s trade. It’s the largest U.S. trade pact since the North American
Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1993.
The Obama administration also hopes to use TPP as a precedent for
cobbling together the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
between the U.S. and the European Union.
These trade deals are part of a package of moves the Obama
administration is making today, including the nuclear deal with Iran and
“reset” with Moscow, aimed at defending Washington’s weakening grip as
the preeminent power in the capitalist “world order.”
“When more than 95 percent of our potential customers live outside our
borders, we can’t let countries like China write the rules of the global
economy. We should write those rules,” Obama said Oct. 5.
The U.S. Congress and legislatures in the other countries must ratify
TPP. There is substantial opposition from spokespeople in Congress for
those who fear they will lose protection from foreign competition. Of
course, bosses on all sides argue their case based on “what is best for
America.”
Beijing has continued to expand its economic influence, becoming the
biggest trade partner with a number of Asian nations. The China
Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China provide more loans to
regimes in the region than the World Bank and the Tokyo-controlled Asia
Development Bank combined.
For years Washington has blocked Beijing from getting a position in the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In June, the Chinese
government responded, launching the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Many of Washington’s traditional allies in Europe and Asia signed up as
shareholders — over Washington’s opposition.
Beijing has also continued to assert it military presence in the region,
including construction of several artificial islands in the South China
Sea, complete with runways, harbors and new military installations.
TPP is “as important to me as another aircraft carrier,” Defense
Secretary Ashton Carter said in April.
Obama and other backers say the TPP will spur growth and exports that
can counter the continuing worldwide economic crisis. But TPP won’t
touch the roots of the capitalist crisis of contracting production and
trade and tightening profit margins.
Negotiations went down to the wire, as the bosses of each country fought
for special protections for key industries at home while seeking to
lower obstacles to expanding profitable trade at the expense of fellow
“partners.”
As is true for all capitalist agreements, this is not a pact of equals.
The 12 countries have vastly different economic and cultural
development, different levels of productivity, different military and
political strength.
The trade union officialdom in the U.S. has campaigned against TPP,
arguing along nationalist and class-collaborationist lines that “free
trade” competition will not “protect American jobs.” Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump as well as Democratic candidates
Bernie Sanders and, after originally helping promote it, Hillary
Clinton, have spoken against it.
Meanwhile, Washington continues to expand its military ties to counter
China in the Pacific. A recent drill with the Philippine armed forces
was the third major exercise this year off that country’s coast. Manila
is building facilities at Subic Bay. Popular opposition cost U.S. forces
access to the naval base there in 1992 after almost 100 years of
occupation, but Washington hopes to place warships and troops there again.
Related articles:
No such thing as an ‘American job’
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