The Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka the TPP, has been approved recently by 12 member states. If the published text of the treaty next is ratified by each state (a process that could take some time), then various important provisions will regulate trade between these member states.
The member states are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Brunei.
Continue reading “TPP Potentially Is Coming to Its 12 Member States”
It just is not realistically possible for countries to be isolationist in this current era. Indeed, the entire world is interconnected by the Internet and other technologies.
Consider this fact that shows how the world is becoming smaller as we group together even more closely: 3,000 years ago there were about 600,000 independent world communities; now there are fewer than 200 such communities.
And when a disease breaks out like Ebola in Africa, with our means of transportation, such a disease can show up and infect people in distant other places.
In early 2012, the United States sought a World Trade Organization (WTO) consultation regarding China’s restrictions on the export of tungsten and molybdenum — forms of “rare earths.” These rare earths are raw materials that are used in the production of some electronics products. Subsequently, the European Union, Japan and Canada requested to join the consultation. China then accepted the request for a WTO consultation.
In support of the restrictions, China argued that they are related to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources. China also asserted that they are needed to reduce mining pollution.
Continue reading “WTO Nixes China’s Restrictions on Rare Earth Exports”
