Mexico Will Ask To Join US-EU Transatlantic Trade Agreement
from the really-getting-serious dept
Things are moving fast with the proposed US-EU transatlantic free trade agreement (TAFTA). It was only a few weeks ago that the formal announcement was made, and already another country wants to join, as pointed out by @PostActa (original in Spanish):
The Mexican government wants to be part of the negotiations of the Transatlantic Association of Trade and Investment (TTIP, in its English acronym), which the United States and European Union will be negotiating, with the idea that there will be two blocks that make up the future pact.
That is, alongside the EU block of 27 countries, Mexico is suggesting there should be a similar regional grouping in North America. Interestingly, the story says that the Mexican government will ask the US President for permission to join, with no mention of asking the EU:
"It is a sovereign decision of Washington as to the approach and the negotiation strategy to be adopted", and although the U.S. government has already referred to the idea, it is something that is not yet included in a formal dialogue, and needs to be defined.
That suggests that the US is actively involved in this latest move -- maybe even its instigator -- and would look favorably on Mexico joining TAFTA. There's also a hint in the article quoted above that Canada too might join TAFTA. Having both Mexico and Canada on board would be consistent with the US's past approach, where it allowed them to join the TPP negotiations, but on fairly humiliating terms that limit their scope of action.
Whether or not Mexico and Canada become part of TAFTA, and under what terms, it's pretty clear what the US strategy here is. Just today we learned that South Korea is likely to join Japan in asking to sign up to the TPP talks. That would make TPP the defining international agreement for the entire Pacific region. TAFTA obviously aims to do the same for the Atlantic. As well as establishing the US as the key link between the giant TPP and TAFTA blocs, this double-headed approach would also isolate the main emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and above all China -- if they refuse to join as presumably junior partners. That globe-spanning pair of trade pacts, it would seem, are what Obama hopes to be remembered for when he leaves office: his legacy to America -- and to history.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: eu, europe, intellectual property, mexico, tafta, trade agreements, us
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that-prints-out-drugs
The massive storage and direction torrent apps are going will destroy the copyright side of the agreement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
So what is the point?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Everyone has an agreement with everyone else to respect their laws but aren't doing what's right fit the people.
The benefit is to clamp down on progress and make the world stable for a select few people. That's the authoritarian way.
But what's incredible is that this same idea being done in the US on this global scale is a mistake of history.
It's been tried in two World Wars and it always leads to disastrous results...
We're about to repeat history for a third time and that scares me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Exactly what I wanted to say, except that "third time" doesn't really say it. I can imagine Perfidious Albion, the Vikings, and maybe the Mongol Horde working by the same rules. Perhaps even China's Emperor Chi too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Something's missing...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Something's missing...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ONLY 1 REASON
Can you guess?
MONEY...WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You're going to enter an agreement where corporations are elevated to the level of governments and can sue you for "Undermining expected future profits." If your laws conflict with what they want to do.
Remember, no lube.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oh well I am at the library so I need to get back to my tent before my snow coffee gets cold.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]