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It seems like many people don't really understand how lobbies work. Corporations' interests aren't identical so they cannot be defended by one lobby. And there

It seems like many people don't really understand how lobbies work. Corporations' interests aren't identical so they cannot be defended by one lobby. And there are lobbies defending non-corporate interests. And those can be a. quite powerful b. quite nefarious. The secrecy during negotiation is necessary because "someone soemwhere has a good reason to oppose something". The fact that there are many somewheres, someones and somethings involved make it impossible to do it in public.

542458 11y ago
> "someone soemwhere has a good reason to oppose something" Especially since TPP is (in large part) designed to prevent China steamrolling entire industries and crushing foreign economies through shear size and sketchy economic measures. If the negotiations are public China has way more time to react to the measures, either by working around them or by threatening countries until they drop out. TPP may or may not be a bad thing, but "negotiated in secret" doesn't make it bad.
- Coding_Cat 11y ago
  If that would make China stop their "sketchy economic measures" I don't see an issue here.
- AnAfrican 11y ago
  I actually had internal constituencies in mind.. Goat Cheese farmers or Cab drivers have and will make hell if there's even one line that they deem unacceptable even if the whole thing could (not necessarily will) be beneficial for the whole country. And given the populist tendencies of the media on some topics, the people will probably agree.
AnAfrican 11y ago
Let's say you're a random African country negotiating a trade deal with the US. - you have a nascent agroculture sector that could benefit from some lower tarifs on exports to the US. - you also have some labour preference laws in your existing oil industry (this is quite common). Because the only people in the US who care about your country are probably the Oil Companies operating there, getting rid of the labour restrictions in the oil industry is a priority on the US side. And lower tarrifs on your Cocoa or Vanilla exports wouldn't cost much. But you know those entrenched local workers in the oil industry are a powerful lobby in your country. You know they will raise hell if those restrictions go away. And you know they'll probably win if you don't have something to show for it. Something real and something a more powerful "lobby" (like millions of farmers) will support. Do you really think it's smarter to have that fight back home before starting the negotiations ?

542458 11y ago

> "someone soemwhere has a good reason to oppose something" Especially since TPP is (in large part) designed to prevent China steamrolling entire industries and crushing foreign economies through shear size and sketchy economic measures. If the negotiations are public China has way more time to react to the measures, either by working around them or by threatening countries until they drop out. TPP may or may not be a bad thing, but "negotiated in secret" doesn't make it bad.

Coding_Cat 11y ago
If that would make China stop their "sketchy economic measures" I don't see an issue here.
AnAfrican 11y ago
I actually had internal constituencies in mind.. Goat Cheese farmers or Cab drivers have and will make hell if there's even one line that they deem unacceptable even if the whole thing could (not necessarily will) be beneficial for the whole country. And given the populist tendencies of the media on some topics, the people will probably agree.

AnAfrican 11y ago

Let's say you're a random African country negotiating a trade deal with the US. - you have a nascent agroculture sector that could benefit from some lower tarifs on exports to the US. - you also have some labour preference laws in your existing oil industry (this is quite common). Because the only people in the US who care about your country are probably the Oil Companies operating there, getting rid of the labour restrictions in the oil industry is a priority on the US side. And lower tarrifs on your Cocoa or Vanilla exports wouldn't cost much. But you know those entrenched local workers in the oil industry are a powerful lobby in your country. You know they will raise hell if those restrictions go away. And you know they'll probably win if you don't have something to show for it. Something real and something a more powerful "lobby" (like millions of farmers) will support. Do you really think it's smarter to have that fight back home before starting the negotiations ?