“One of the things that I have always argued is that TPP is good for trade for the member states, but we cannot allow it to be a common instrument of geopolitics which effectively divides the region,” Kevin Rudd said.
The TPP free trade agreement was signed by 12 nations, including the United States, in February 2016, but still requires approval from the US Congress. The deal pointedly excludes several economies, including Russia and China.
“It is very important that we now begin discussing how we open the TPP in the future as a stepping stone for a broader objective which might be called a free trade area of Asia and Pacific, where the non-TPP states can enter as well. I think this is very important,” Rudd said.
If implemented, the TPP free trade agreement will encompass 40 percent of the global economy. Critics of the TPP agreement claim it undermines domestic companies, laws, regulations and institutions through an extra-judicial process that stacks the deck in favor of multinational corporations.
