Trans-Pacific Partnership or Trampling Poor Partners? A Tentative Critical Review

64 Pages Posted: 22 Apr 2014

See all articles by Raj Bhala

Raj Bhala

University of Kansas - School of Law; International Bar Association; Dentons U.S. LLP; Bloomberg Quint / BQ Prime

Date Written: April 2014

Abstract

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could be the most economically and politically significant free trade agreement (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region. Conceived in 2006 by just four small countries, it now embraces 12 that account for 40 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It looks to be a 21st century accord in terms of the breadth and depth of trade barriers it identifies and disciplines.

But, with plenty of likely exceptions, TPP appears to fall short of a ‘free’ trade accord in the Neo-Classical Economic sense. It seems to manage trade in sensitive sectors. Worse yet, negotiated in an almost shamefully non-transparent manner, TPP may well advance an American corporate agenda, with insufficient regard to the most pressing matter in the Asia-Pacific region: poverty alleviation.

Keywords: trans-pacific partnership, TPP, free trade agreement, FTA, asia-pacific, neo-classical economics

Suggested Citation

Bhala, Raj, Trans-Pacific Partnership or Trampling Poor Partners? A Tentative Critical Review (April 2014). Manchester Journal of International Economic Law, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2427377

Raj Bhala (Contact Author)

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