Vietnam had promised more workers' rights. Without the TPP, it has instead unleashed a crackdown.

[riversedge]

Trump is making the world more dangerous.



Ripple Effect


How a Trump decision on
trade became a setback
for democracy in Vietnam

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/how-a-trump-decision-on-trade-became-a-setback-for-democracy-in-vietnam/?utm_term=.c13f6c5f5459

Vietnam had promised more workers’ rights. Without the TPP, it has instead unleashed a crackdown.


By Simon Denyer and David Nakamura Oct. 11, 2018




HANOI — It was one of President Trump’s very first acts: to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping 12-nation trade agreement that had been the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s strategic “rebalance” toward Asia.

Trump had charged that such deals hurt American manufacturing, and on Jan. 23, 2017, he signed the withdrawal order in the Oval Office.

“A great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump said.

With that, he set in motion a political and economic storm that is still reverberating here in Vietnam.

Freed from conditions imposed by the Obama administration to join the trade pact, Vietnam’s Communist government has scrapped plans to allow independent trade unions and unleashed its most severe clampdown on dissent in decades. Authorities have arrested scores of social activists, bloggers and democracy advocates, sentencing many to jail terms of 10 to 20 years.

Vietnam offers an example of the little-noticed fallout from some of Trump’s earliest decisions. The Trans-Pacific treaty, known as the TPP, quickly faded from American headlines as Trump launched high-stakes trade battles with China, Europe, Mexico and Canada. But the abrupt policy change has had far-reaching ripple effects, according to diplomats and activists.

“As soon as America withdrew from the TPP, you saw a radical change in the way [the Vietnamese] government treated workers, labor activists and unions,” said Do Thi Minh Hanh, a 33-year-old labor activist, speaking in a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. “A lot of people have been harassed, followed, imprisoned and threatened.”............................................

[Tavarious Jackson]

1. I was always pro TPP.

I never understood this fear of "others" and the nationalist agenda some politicians have. :/

[SkyDaddy7]

2. +1nt.

[pazzyanne]

3. When will this malignant administration end.

Not only does it trample on American rights, but it is now infecting the whole world. Not a proud day for our nation.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. I wonder the very same thing myself

Everytime you think it can't possibly get worse - it does.

[WeekiWater]

5. With some more worker protections I supported the TPP.

Felt damn near like I was on an island with Obama as the only two supporters of it. Far too many love the buyer beware model of economics.

[oasis]

6. What a mess!

[Jim Lane]

7. Hillary Clinton also opposed the final TPP.

When she was Secretary of State, and the terms were still being negotiated, she praised the TPP as the "gold standard" of trade agreements. The terms were finalized after she left office. She said that she would not support the version of the TPP that was actually sent out to the participating nations for their consideration and possible ratification.

[BeckyDem]

8. Correct and one of her advisors was against it, she listened.

Stiglitz, not a lightweight.


Why TPP Is a Bad Deal for America and American Workers

The most significant parts of the TPP pertain to investment, not trade. But these investment provisions make it more attractive for American businesses to move jobs and production offshore and give greater credibility to the offshoring threats employers use to undercut U.S. workers’ demands for higher wages and unions.

It is possible to write a trade agreement that is fair to workers and provides broadly shared benefits for all Americans. But when people other than those representing the interests of big businesses are shut out of writing the rules of the economy, that outcome is unlikely.
http://rooseveltinstitute.org/why-tpp-bad-deal-america-and-american-workers/

[Me.]

9. ...