This is a little on the economic wonky side of things; but well worth watching if you are a trade follower. The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) attempts to construct a pro-TPP narrative by discussing possible 2019 benefits to Canada. However, if you listen closely, each time the question of Canadian consumer benefit it raised you’ll note there aren’t any.

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Corporate globalism, via international trade agreements, is a scam. By design it is intended to exfiltrate the wealth of a targeted (host) nation, and allow corporations full control over the domestic pricing of commodity goods. There are parts of that interview when the lobbyist/punditry accidentally admits the scheme.

Structurally TPP is an Asia-centric export agreement that establishes benefit for Asian access to non-Asian TPP countries. In exchange, for access to the Canadian market Asian TPP member nations allow closely regulated access from the Canadian commodity market.

Canada has opened their economy to receiving low cost Asian goods; writ large. However, the only benefit for Canada is limited access to TPP nations for the Canadian agricultural industry allowing more export.

Specifically in the AG sector, when food production is exported, the traditional supply/demand ‘free market’ is destroyed. Multinational corporations create a ‘controlled market‘; and there is ZERO benefit to a Canadian food shopper when farm harvests are shipped overseas. Exactly the opposite is true.

Domestic food prices factually increase as local product is shipped into foreign markets leaving limited (controlled) inventory in the domestic supply chain. Ex. export massive amounts of beef (processed or other), and, if local demand is consistent, local beef prices increase. This is exactly the way corporate AG multinationals achieve maximum profit.

In the U.S. this multinational “controlled market system” is a major part of the reason why American food prices jumped so much in the past fifteen years. The process of charging a U.S. or Canadian consumer a higher price for a product than would naturally occur without the corporate control is called the “exfiltration” of wealth.

Additionally, as noted in the CBC interview, Canada’s value to Asia is more of a gateway to the U.S. market than the actual Canadian market itself. TPP nations, and the Canadian government, were hoping to exploit the backdoor NAFTA loophole forever. The restructured USMCA has blocked that possibility.

China is cunning…. they will eventually join the TPP and crush the internal participants by leveraging market access with massive dumping of manufactured goods. However, Beijing will wait until all other nations have fully chained themselves together…. When there is no longer an exit, Beijing will make their move. Thankfully, the U.S. is not part of it.

[USMCA Article 32 pdf link]