Fluent Essays

There are two articles attached, one discussing the US withdrawal from the Tran Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations and a second discussing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).  The RCEP was originally the Chinese version of the TPP but now contains many of the countries that were to be TPP participants. Your job is to evaluate the merits of the US decision to withdraw and the China’s reaction of embracing the leadership for, in effect, recreating the TPP without the US but with some staunch US allies. There are both political and economic aspects to the actions of the US and China.  Use the discussions in class and  the other readings assigned concerning trade as well as your ongoing reading of the news.  Your assignment is not meant to present an exhaustive review of what has happened and why it happened.  It is to demonstrate knowledge of trade, the resulting politics, and the implications for the future…in 2 pages. Submission will be though “Turnitin”.  Be forewarned:  “Turnitin” looks for plagiarism from published papers, and documents from around the world.As Trump retreats on trade, China moves in America’s traditional partners already are turning to Beijing. By Hans von der Burchard and Simon Marks “Politico” 1/24/17, 8:49 PM CET Updated 1/27/17, 8:42 AM CET U.S. President Donald Trump’s crusade against China seemed to backfire on Day One. Throughout his election campaign, Trump made clamorous promises to challenge Beijing’s ascent to global dominance. He vowed to hold the country to account over currency manipulation and cozied up to Taiwan. He accused Beijing of saber-rattling in the South China Sea and of supine support for nuclear-armed North Korea. But Trump’s first big move on trade policy — an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal among 12 Pacific Rim countries — is set to play straight into China’s hands as it seeks to become the undisputed regional power. Angry over the move, America’s traditional trade partners have already this week reached out to Beijing to forge closer commercial ties. China is perfectly placed to move into the empty space created by the U.S. withdrawal. Ironically, one of the overriding strategic goals of the Trans-Pacific Partnership had been to triangulate a U.S.-led trade policy that would set technological and regulatory standards in Asia, which China would be forced to follow. The accord was a key plank of President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia.” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström also criticized Trump’s protectionist policies on trade and said his policies were “doomed to fail.” For the U.S., the biggest risk now is not that China joins the Trans-Pacific agreement itself, but that Washington loses leverage over China to tackle the very business practices that Trump repeatedly criticized during his election campaign. “TPP is an agreement designed for the U.S. way of doing business, with strong rules on state-owned enterprises, electronic commerce and enforceable provisions on labor and environmental standards,” said Chad P. Bown from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The TPP withdrawal “is losing a lot of leverage toward China.” Carrying on without Trump Trump’s departure from TPP has sparked howls of protest from the other 11 members, and Australia immediately mentioned that there could be room for China to play a role. “The original architecture was to enable other countries to join,” Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said Tuesday, adding that “there would be scope for China.” Only hours after the executive order, Chile announced that it would invite China and South Korea to a meeting of the TPP countries in the coastal resort of Viña del Mar in March to discuss the future of the agreement without the U.S. “The TPP as it was going forward is off the table. That doesn’t mean that Chile is going to change tack. We are going to press on in opening up of the world … as we did in the past, with bilateral deals, and regional deals,” Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo MuAsia forms worlds largest trading bloc RCEP after years of talks After signing, focus turns to ratification; China to hold sway in Indias absence Leaders and trade ministers from the 15 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership countries pose for a virtual group photo during the signing ceremony hosted by Vietnam on Nov. 15. © AP KENTARO IWAMOTO, Nikkei staff writerNovember 15, 2020 13:57 JSTUpdated on November 16, 2020 00:58 JST SINGAPORE -- Fifteen countries spanning the Asia-Pacific region on Sunday signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, creating the worlds largest trading bloc that promises to help speed up the members post-pandemic growth. The 15 countries are China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, along with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Together, they account for around 30\% of the worlds gross domestic product and population. This marks the first time China enters a nonbilateral free trade agreement of this scale. Coming at a time when the U.S. is less enthusiastic about joining global trade deals and talks on a post-Brexit trade deal between the European Union and the U.K. stall, Asia looks to take the lead in shaping the new global trade architecture. The newly signed free trade framework extends beyond trade to set common rules and standards for a range of economic activitiy. RCEP will take effect after at least six ASEAN countries and three non-ASEAN countries ratify it. Sundays signing ceremony was held online, hosted by this years ASEAN chair Vietnam. With national leaders looking on, economic ministers from the 10 members of the Southeast Asian bloc signed in alphabetical order, followed by the five other countries. They held up their documents for the other participants to see over the video feed, each drawing applause from an audience in Hanoi. I am confident that RCEP will soon be ratified and come into force, further bolstering our post-pandemic economic recovery and delivering shared prosperity to the people and businesses of all participating countries, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said after all countries signed. RCEP was officially proposed in 2012, and the talks had dragged on since 2013. Progress was especially slow in the early years, but the discussions gained momentum after Donald Trump became the U.S. president in 2017. Amid a growing trend of protectionism, the participating governments became more motivated to promote free trade. An exception was India, which was initially involved in the negotiations but withdrew last year, as it was reluctant to open up its agricultural and other key sectors. The agreement, which the members described as modern, comprehensive, high quality, and mutually beneficial, includes 20 chapters of rules covering everything from trade in goods, investment and e-commerce to intellectual property and government procurement. The