Trans-Pacific Partnership deal: Boon or bane?
What is Trans-Pacific Partnership deal?
Twelve nations, have reached a tentative deal on a massive Pacific Rim trading bloc termed as the largest-ever deal of its kind- the Trans-Pacific Partnership a.k.a TPP, with implications for hundreds of millions of people, hundreds of products and industries, and for long-term relationships between countries on four continents. TPP deal aims to create a unified economic bloc for easier trading, but puts many key principles of internet in doubt as many say that the phrases used in the deal are vague, and may lead to whistleblowers being penalized.
Others points require that online content providers — such as YouTube and Facebook — must take down content if they receive just one complaint, as they are in the US. That will be harmful for startups looking to build such businesses since they’ll be required to have the resources to respond to every complaint, experts have pointed out.
In 2013, when the partnership was still being discussed, the Electronic Freedom Foundation called TPP “one of the worst global threats to the internet.” The changes are dangerous because to unify the various countries in the partnerships’ rules on intellectual property and other internet law, they are opting to take the US’ largely very restrictive rules.
At present times, when American firms export their products to the other 11 nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, they get hit with tariffs as high as 55 percent on wine, 50 percent on motorcycles, 35 percent on plywood, 30 percent on tractors, 24 percent on headphones, and 20 percent on beauty products.
The deal would eliminate all tariffs on U.S. manufacturing exports to TPP countries, and most on U.S. agricultural exports—everything from plastics to poultry, seafood to steel, chemicals to cotton, apples to aircraft parts.
