Let's talk about Vietnam, China, The U.S. and the TPP

[cali]

So one of the reasons we're told we need the TPP is to prevent China from "setting the rules" on trade and economic and cultural dominance in that part of the world. Part of the problem with this claim, is that it's shutting the barn door too late.

China already is dominant in Vietnam. Hardly a surprise considering that Vietnam is within China's sphere of influence. China has been offshoring factory work to Vietnam for years. It's difficult to look at the current China-Vietnam relationship and see how the tpp will markedly remake it.

In Vietnam, pay for workers in factories there is about half of the average pay for workers in Chinese factories. Vietnam has been very resistant to labor provisions in the TPP. Even if the U.S. does get them to capitulate to "strong" labor standards, the Vietnamese could choose to ignore those provisions; enforcement is extremely difficult, and investigating abuses isn't a piece of cake either.



<snip>

"There are no labor rights in Vietnam," U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told HuffPost. "If the bar is Vietnam has to become the United States in the next five years, I don't expect that to happen. If the bar is to go from no labor rights to a scheme akin to the American and European schemes of labor protections, I think that is an unrealistic expectation."

It is a delicate maneuver for American negotiators to press the Vietnamese government on human rights violations, given the two countries' recently shared history. And Vietnam has been fighting against requirements for stronger labor rights throughout the TPP talks.

Le Dang Doanh, a senior economic adviser for the general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, told the U.S.-funded Voice of America last fall that TPP's requirements are "extremely difficult."

For TPP to make any difference on the labor front, it would have to enshrine workers' right to organize and form unions. Vietnam has only one officially sanctioned union, which critics say is often more closely allied with employers than workers.

"Vietnam has shown no signs of compromising on this," Doanh told Voice of America, referring to legalizing unions. "Vietnam has never wanted to make changes regarding this issue."

<snip>

The U.S. has a poor record on enforcing human rights and labor terms under trade agreements. A 2009 Government Accountability Office report found that American enforcement of labor terms was "ad hoc and very limited" with "minimal oversight." Another GAO report from November 2014 found that the situation hadn't improved much. While the Labor Department has brought a handful of workers' rights cases under prior trade agreements, they have taken years to investigate and remain unresolved.

<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/obama-worker-rights_n_6615974.html

If this seems like a Sisyphean task, maybe that's because it is.

[peacebird]

1. Let's talk about prioritizing buying stuff Made in the USA whenever we can find instead of cheap

chinese crap. Seriously. The buy organic/buy local movement for food has grown dramatically in last decade. What if we tried to kickstart Buy American? Hubby & I always look for country of origin, and have found the made in America clothes from LandsEnd (for example) last seasons longer than the regular imported stuff from them.
We bought him shorts three seasons ago. My mother bought him the imported LandsEnd, I bought him the made in USA pair. The imported were thin t-shirt like material, single stitch seams and had holes worn into the fabric after a single season. They look like crap now. The USA made were a much thicker heavier knit fabric with double stitch flat seams and well made elastic waist. Still hold their shape, no holes in fabric, still look new on third season. So ultimately the Made in America LandsEnd shorts were a better buy than the cheaper LandsEnd import.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. I agree, however low/fixed income consumers sometimes have no choice...

...but to stretch their dollars as far as they can.

[cali]

3. yep, and the more wages sink, the greater the need for people to find

the cheapest goods out there.

[DCBob]

4. So just give up and let China run amok in that region??

Not wise.