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Tim Bentley's avatar

Congratulations on the first edition! An interesting and unsettling article.

I know the ins and outs of why it wasn't very popular aren't the point of the article, but I have to say, you guys do a better job selling the TPP than anybody I saw writing about it at the time - I don't think I've previously seen a picture of the possible TPP future that was even half as well (or positively) painted.

From a software industry perspective here in the antipodes, few were happy with being forced into an American-style (perceived as encouraging rent-seeking and discouraging innovation) IP framework, or with a dispute resolution mechanism that allowed corporate interests to challenge parliamentary decisions. It's one thing for a state to give up sovereignty in some area as part of a treaty with other states, but it feels like something else to cede sovereignty to corporations.

Removing or softening those two provisions might have gone quite a way in reducing opposition in several countries, and in turn that might have got the thing over the line earlier, before Trump.

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David Eggleston's avatar

I don’t know if this major strategic blunder was all Trump’s fault. Wasn’t Hillary Clinton also talking about backing out of the TPP? Isolationism and parochial thought seem to be dominating both major parties right now.

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