MOSCOW (Sputnik) — China is the main victim of the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, former director of the Mercosur Secretariat Jose Manuel Quijano told Sputnik.
On Monday, 12 Pacific Rim countries, with the United States and Japan being the biggest economies among them, concluded the TPP free trade agreement. The deal aims to deregulate trade between the United States and the Pacific region and remove governmental oversight of trade relations.
"The main victim is China… because in order to sell to another TPP member, the country needs to have created goods with its raw material or input," Quijano said.
"It is clear that the aim is to generate trade diversion towards those who are members, and to remove China, which is not [a member]," the economist explained.
The TPP agreement will introduce tariff free trade between the United States, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, with the agreement encompassing a territory representing approximately 40 percent of global gross domestic product.
There has been considerable opposition to TPP from international organizations and parliamentarians, who have criticized the deal’s secrecy during negotiations, its supposed favouring of multinational corporations and its exclusion of BRICS countries.
Founded in 1991, Mercosur is a sub-regional economic bloc that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Its associate countries are Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
