Category Archives: Asia

The Top Ten Reasons Why Trade Agreements Should Not Cover Currency Manipulation

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(6/13/2015) President Obama is still pressing the difficult campaign to obtain Trade Promotion Authority and use it to conclude international negotiations — across one ocean for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and then across the other ocean for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Many in the Congress, particularly many Democrats, insist that the trade agreements must include mechanisms designed to prevent countries from manipulating their currencies for unfair advantage. read more

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New Improved Trade Agreements

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(5/11/2015)  In marketing the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), President Obama has been emphasizing some of the features that distinguish it from earlier free trade agreements such as NAFTA.  They include commitments by Pacific countries on the environment and expansion of enforceable labor rights.  Also new is the geopolitical argument for the much-discussed “pivot to Asia.”  (Detractors, for their part, focus on some partly new features as well, such as investor protection, which is said to benefit only big corporations.) read more

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Asia Games: Not Zero-Sum

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(4/28/2015)  Two hostesses are rivals in a popularity contest throughout the social season. When they hold soirees on the same night invitees must choose which one to go to. The hostesses guard their social ranking jealously, and may even punish a guest who goes to the rival’s party by withholding an invitation next time.

To read about the roles of China and the US over the last month, one would think that Asia/Pacific relations are a zero-sum game like that of these two hostesses in some fictional time and place.  read more

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