Global History, Culture and Ideology
The United States, together with 11 other Pacific Rim Nations, has reached an agreement on what would be the largest trade deal in history: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The agreement would include two fifths of the global economy. President Obama has claimed “we (the US) should be writing those rules, opening markets to American products while setting high standards for protecting workers and preserving our environment.” Nonetheless, the TPP faces great opposition, both within and outside the United States, from academics, environmentalists and workers alike. Use concepts of the course to make an argument about the factors that may be influencing both the creation of this trade agreement and the opposition that it has generated.
Some questions to think about: What role might the long histories of colonialism and imperialism play in the way Regional Trade Agreements like the TPP are made? Does TPP tend to reproduce these historical structures of world trade? What impact is the agreement likely to have on globalization and inequality? What is at stake for the different actors (e.g. multinational corporations, developed and developing nations, their workers and civil societies)?
Some possible resources:
Trans-Pacific Partnership is reached, but faces scrutiny in Congress: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-is-reached.html?_r=0
Joseph Stiglitz: In 2016, let’s hope for better trade agreements – and the death of TPP
http://gu.com/p/4fktp/sbl
Chilean social groups to protest Montsanto, Anti-Democratic TPP: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Chilean- Social-Groups-to-Protest-Monsanto-Anti-Democratic-TPP-20160121-0032.html
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