TTP – another step in the march of globalisation

It’s big news. The deal in Atlanta between 12 countries means that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) will cover about 40% of the global economy. The deal is between the US and 11 other countries – Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Malaysia, and Peru.

The aim is to reduce tariffs and try to harmonise rules on jobs, competition and intellectual property. It covers “everything from pharmaceuticals and banking to milk”, according to The Guardian. TTP is another step in the march of globalisation.

Many are worried that globalisation might not be in the best interests of British workers. Third Way has long advocated domestic demand-oriented growth, and  that means paying attention to our internal market, and to a more equal distribution of income. Restrictions on trade, can in fact, have a good effect on our home economy.

Others realise that globalisation may jus tmean giving more power to corporations who have no loyalty to any nation state and little or no public accountability. That’s certainly the view of Walden Bello, a Filipino author and academic, who says of TTP and TTIP (the European counterpart): “they are really about asserting corporate control over every aspect of our lives, through intellectual property rights and investor-state arrangements (the infamous ISDS), in which basically the sovereign rights of states are curtailed by the ability of corporations to sue them.”