703 Just before APEC began, Obama hosted TPP meeting inside US embassy in Beijing

Just before APEC began, Obama hosted TPP meeting inside US embassy in
Beijing

Newsletter published on 12 November 2014

(1) Just before APEC began, Obama hosted TPP meeting inside US embassy
in Beijing
(2) US-Japan conflicts stall Obama's Trans-Pacific economic pact
(3) Xi pushes China-backed free trade area (FTAAP) as rival to TPP
(4) Japanese and Chinese leaders meet in Beijing, but antagonism remains
(5) TPP & TAP Lies - Paul Craig Roberts

(1) Just before APEC began, Obama hosted TPP meeting inside US embassy
in Beijing

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/11/11/apec-n11.html

Obama escalates pressure on China at APEC summit

By Mike Head

11 November 2014

US President Barack Obama yesterday set a confrontational tone for this
week's Asia-Pacific summits, starting with a series of provocative moves
directed against China at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
meeting in Beijing.

Coming on top of doubling the US troop numbers in Iraq, and NATO's
preparations for large-scale exercises on Russia's borders, Obama's
performance highlighted the rapid escalation of Washington's aggressive
stance globally since the mid-term US congressional elections.

In a provocative rebuff to his Chinese hosts, just before the APEC
proceedings began, Obama convened a separate meeting, inside the US
embassy, of countries participating in the US-led Trans Pacific
Partnership (TPP), which excludes China.

The TPP sets out a comprehensive framework for dismantling all
obstacles, such as state-owned enterprises and investment regulations,
to the dominance of American finance capital in the Asia Pacific
economy. It has become the central economic thrust of the Obama
administration's confrontational "pivot to Asia" against China, which
also includes a US military build-up throughout the region.

Obama staged the TPP gathering as a display of intent. This was despite
ongoing disagreements between its participants, particularly the US and
Japan, that stymied his push to conclude the TPP before the end of the
year. Addressing the assembled heads of government, he declared: "This
has the potential for being a historic achievement. It's now up to all
of us to see if we can finalise a deal that is both ambitious and
comprehensive."

At Obama's insistence, the TPP partners agreed that the treaty must take
priority over, and provide the "pathway" for, APEC's long-standing plan,
now championed heavily by China, for a Free Trade Area of the Asia
Pacific (FTAAP). In the negotiations before the summit, US officials
forced China to back down on the wording of the APEC communiqué, which
was to commit to the FTAAP's completion. Instead, the document now pays
only lip service to the FTAAP, consigning it to a two-year "collective
strategic study."

Obama then delivered a speech at the APEC business CEO summit, in which
he bluntly asserted American leadership of the entire world. Not only
would the US remain "a Pacific power," but "the one constant--the one
global necessity--is and has been American leadership." Claiming to have
presided over a resurgence of US manufacturing and jobs, Obama declared
that the US was now "leading from a position of strength." The TPP, he
emphasised, would provide "the model for trade in the 21st century."

While proclaiming twice, for the record, "we want China to do well,"
Obama issued a long list of demands on the Beijing leadership. The first
was "an ambitious, high-standard, bilateral investment treaty that opens
up China's economy to American investors."

Other demands were "a more level playing field" for foreign companies to
compete with Chinese companies, "the protection of intellectual property
rights" and the rejection of "cybertheft of trade secrets for commercial
gain." Also included was approval of US "biotechnology advances" in
Chinese farming, "a more market-determined exchange rate" and "human
rights and freedom of the press."

These demands are designed to tear down any barriers to establishing
Wall Street's economic hegemony over China and the region. Obama stated
that he looked forward to discussing them with President Xi Jinping.

Prior to the APEC summit, Washington intervened to oppose South Korean
and Australian participation in China's new Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank (AIIB), which is a vehicle for funneling Chinese finance
into development projects across the region. In Australia's case, the US
secured the reversal of an in-principle agreement to join, citing
"security" concerns. That intervention sent a clear signal that China's
continued economic expansion is now regarded by Washington as a military
issue.

Despite the diplomatic formalities in Beijing, complete with ceremonial
photo shoots, the message from Washington could not be missed. Forbes
magazine noted: "The Obama administration has, at least from Beijing's
perspective, marred the APEC gathering. Beijing staged the event as a
showcase of growing might." Instead, the Chinese regime's planned
centrepiece, the FTAAP, was shot down.

Forbes cited comments by an unnamed Chinese official to the South China
Morning Post: "The US wants to impede FTAAP. This is really annoying for
us." According to the magazine, China's exclusion from the TPP "will
hurt them." According to Forbes, the Washington-based Peterson Institute
for International Economics estimates that the TPP will cost China $100
billion a year in lost exports, and that this will "sting" because of
falling economic growth and rising debt levels in China.

The Chinese regime attempted to counter the US offensive by
strengthening its ties with other Asian-Pacific economies, while making
some concessions to Washington's demands.

On Sunday, the day before the APEC summit began, Xi announced a $40
billion contribution to a "Silk Road Fund" for infrastructure projects
to boost China's land and maritime trade routes across Asia and the
Indian Ocean.

As the APEC meeting got underway, Beijing leadership finalised a second
major gas supply deal with Russia, signed a free trade agreement with
South Korea and signaled the completion of a similar trade pact with
Australia.

Also yesterday, China's central bank pushed up the value of the
country's currency, the renminbi by 0.37 percent. It was the sharpest
single-day move in more than four years, making goods from other Asian
nations, as well as the US, more competitive in the Chinese market.

In addition, Chinese securities regulators said they would begin
allowing investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong to trade shares on each
other's stock markets on November 17, potentially giving US and other
foreign buyers access to $2 trillion worth of Chinese companies.

Wall Street particularly welcomed this move. "Hong Kong stands at the
forefront of the largest capital account opening of a country since
WWII," the US-based broker Jefferies told its clients. Goldman Sachs
said the opening of Shanghai to foreign investors was an opportunity
"simply too big to ignore," adding: "The scheme essentially ... creates
the world's second-largest equity market by market cap," second only to
the New York Stock Exchange.

None of this, however, will satiate the appetites of the US finance
houses, or end the intensifying US economic, strategic and military
pressure on China. Washington is demanding nothing less than the
overturning of all restrictions that stand in the way of US imperialism
subjugating China.

The APEC summit, which traditionally focuses on trade and investment,
will be followed later this week by an Association of South East Asian
(ASEAN) conference in Burma (Myanmar). There Obama will further
encourage ASEAN members, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines, to
pursue territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Next weekend, during a G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, Obama will
deliver what the White House described as a major speech on "US
leadership in the Asia-Pacific." No advance details of the speech have
been provided, but it is certain to mark a further escalation of
Washington's anti-China "pivot," which Obama first formally unveiled in
an address to the Australian parliament in 2011.

(2) US-Japan conflicts stall Obama's Trans-Pacific economic pact

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/28/tppa-o28.html

By Mike Head 28 October 2014

Week-long negotiations in Canberra, followed by three days of
ministerial talks in Sydney last weekend, failed to break a deadlock
between the American and Japanese governments over the proposed
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The TPP is a treaty being aggressively pushed by the Obama
administration to establish unchallenged economic hegemony in the
Asia-Pacific. The failure of the talks to make any progress toward
finalising it, despite intense US pressure, is another measure of rising
economic and geo-strategic tensions globally, not just between the US,
China and Russia, but also between the US and its major imperialist
rivals, notably Japan.

Four years after the former Democratic Party of Japan government first
indicated its readiness to join the TPP, and 18 months after the present
Liberal Democratic Party government said it would sign up to the treaty,
no agreement is in sight. Bitter disputes continue between the US and
Japan over access to each other's agricultural and auto markets, which
is just part of a wider agenda of battering down barriers to US trade
and investment.

"There is no prospect for an agreement on market access at the moment,"
Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari told a news conference in
Sydney. After meeting with US Trade Representative Michael Froman on
Monday morning on the margin of the plenary session, Amari declared:
"The problems left are extremely difficult and we cannot solve them easily."

President Barack Obama said this year he wanted to conclude the talks by
the time he travels to Asia next month. But Amari, when asked whether a
TPP summit meeting would take place in Beijing, on the sidelines of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in November, said nothing
of that sort had been discussed.

Amari's statements made a mockery of the claims by the host of the
latest round of talks, Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb, that a TPP
deal could be finalised by the end of 2014. "There is a real sense that
we are within reach of the finish line," Robb claimed. Alongside Froman,
the Australian minister pushed hard for the talks to avoid missing a
deadline set by Obama, for the third year in a row.

The official statement issued by the representatives of the 12 TPP
countries insisted that "we have made significant progress" and that a
treaty was "crystallising." Such claims, however, have been made in
previous TPP communiqués.

Even Robb conceded that "difficult decisions" remained outstanding. He
mentioned intellectual property, state-owned enterprises and "other
areas," on top of the US-Japan market access disputes. No details were
provided, in keeping with the secrecy surrounding the entire TPP
process, which is being conducted by government and hundreds of
corporate lobbyists behind the backs of the population.

Without agreement between Washington and Tokyo, the TPP will be an
abject failure. Together the two countries constitute about 90 percent
of the gross domestic product of the negotiating partners. The TPP talks
also involve Australia, Canada, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam,
New Zealand, Mexico, Chile and Peru.

The TPP, first conceived in 2003 by Singapore, New Zealand and Chile,
was literally taken over by the Obama administration in 2009. It became
an essential component of Washington's military and strategic "pivot" to
Asia to combat China, which is effectively excluded from the TPP.

More fundamentally, the TPP seeks to reshape the entire "economic
architecture" of the Asia-Pacific region in the interests of Wall Street
finance capital and the largest US corporations. In the words of Obama's
former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, the TPP, combined with a
similar treaty in Europe, is about "writing the rules that will govern
the global economy for the next century."

While presented as a "free trade" pact, the TPP's 29 chapters go far
beyond traditional trade issues. Apart from tariffs and trade barriers,
the TPP is aimed at tearing down all legal, regulatory and government
impediments to American investment throughout the region, so that every
aspect of economic and social life is restructured in line with the
profit requirements of US finance houses and transnationals.

In Japan's case, this means not just demolishing the country's tariffs
on politically sensitive farm products--rice, wheat, beef and pork,
dairy and sugar--but gaining access to other lucrative sectors of the
Japan economy.

A US Trade Representative document this year listed "barriers" that the
US wants dismantled in a long list of key industries. These include
Japan Post, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, legal
services, education, military contracts, airlines, ports, public works
construction contracts, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

For months, Obama and his envoys have publicly cajoled Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and his government to give way. Last month, US Trade
Representative Froman wrote an opinion piece for the London-based
Financial Times accusing Japan of jeopardising the TPP. This was after
talks in Washington ended in acrimony, with Amari, his Japanese
counterpart walking out.

Froman declared that the stakes were "high" for Japan, saying it was
reneging on promises to pursue a "bold vision" for the TPP as a key
component of Abe's "third arrow" of structural economic reform. Froman
urged Abe to stand firm against unnamed "vested interests" in Japan.

Obama himself then phoned Abe, urging him to be "bold" in the TPP
negotiations, insisting that their partnership was the cornerstone of US
engagement with the region. This was followed by a visit by US Commerce
Secretary Penny Pritzker to meet with Abe to reiterate the message.

These thinly veiled warnings about the harm to US-Japan relations have
failed to produce any agreement. This points to an increasing
assertiveness by Abe's government, and not just domestic resistance by
"vested interests" to his "third arrow" agenda.

This third plank of "Abenomics," unveiled in July, consists of a
far-reaching program of more than 200 pro-market restructuring measures
that will undercut some protected sections of business and also make
deep inroads into the social position of the Japanese working class.

Abe took the decision, in March 2013, to sign up to the TPP, despite any
agreement to scrap agricultural tariffs threatening to shatter the rural
base of his Liberal Democratic Party, as a means of pursuing this
aggressive pro-market offensive to end two decades of economic stagnation.

Since taking office nearly two years ago, Abe has closely aligned
himself with Obama's "pivot," but he has also used the rising tensions
with China to push for Japan's re-militarisation, including by
"reinterpreting" the so-called pacifist constitution imposed on Japan by
the US after World War II.

While Abe remains publicly committed to the TPP, the impasse points to
underlying, intractable conflicts between the interests of US
imperialism and those of its current allies such as Japan, that have
been exacerbated by the ongoing global economic breakdown.

(3) Xi pushes China-backed free trade area (FTAAP) as rival to TPP

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN0IV05F20141111

Inaugurating APEC, Xi urges faster talks on China-backed free trade area

Tue Nov 11, 2014 4:43am GMT

BEIJING (Reuters) - The global economic recovery is unstable and nations
in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc should speed up
free trade talks to spur growth, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on
Tuesday.

Speaking at the start of a summit of APEC leaders, Xi urged the meeting
to speed up talks on a trade liberalisation framework called the Free
Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP,) that is being pushed by Beijing.

"Currently, the global economic recovery still faces many unstable and
uncertain factors. Facing the new situation, we should further promote
regional economic integration and create a pattern of opening up that is
conducive to long-term development," Xi said.

"We should vigorously promote the Asia-Pacific free trade zone, setting
the goal, direction and roadmap and turn the vision into reality as soon
as possible."

Some see a proposed study on the FTAAP plan, which will be presented to
APEC leaders for approval, as a way to divert attention from the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement being pushed by the
United States. China is not part of the TPP, which seeks to establish a
free-trade bloc stretching from Vietnam to Chile and Japan, encompassing
about 800 million people and almost 40 percent of the global economy.

China has not been enthusiastic about the TPP, fearing that it is being
used by Washington as a way to either force it to open markets by
signing up or else isolate it from other regional economies as trade is
diverted to TPP signatories.

The TPP is widely seen as the economic backbone of U.S. President Barack
Obama's "pivot" to Asia, what some experts view as an attempt to balance
China's rise by establishing a larger U.S. presence in the region,
including military assets.

Xi was quoted by state news agency Xinhua on Monday as saying that FTAAP
"does not go against existing free trade arrangements which are
potential pathways to realise FTAAP's goals".

He said APEC's 21 economies should play a leading and coordinating role,
break all sorts of shackles and usher in a new round of opening up,
communication and integration.   [...]

(4) Japanese and Chinese leaders meet in Beijing, but antagonism remains

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/11/11/jpch-n11.html

Japanese and Chinese leaders hold first meeting in Beijing

By Ben McGrath 11 November 2014

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping met
for the first time on Monday on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing. Xi had previously refused
to meet with Abe since the two came to power in November and December
2012 respectively.

The meeting was a cold affair at the Great Hall of the People, lasting
less than 30 minutes. The two exchanged a stiff handshake for the
cameras before sitting down for talks. "I believe that not only our
Asian neighbors but many other countries have long hoped that Japan and
China hold talks," Abe said after the meeting. "We finally lived up to
their expectations and made a first step to improve our ties."

Abe said he and Xi discussed setting up a hotline, supposedly to prevent
clashes in the East China Sea over a cluster of five islands known as
the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China. Xi, in
response, placed responsibility for the chilly relations squarely on
Tokyo, calling on Japan to do more to "enhance mutual trust."

A comment by China's state-owned Xinhua news agency on Monday night was
more explicit. "The onus is primarily on Abe," it said. "It is Tokyo
that cast the ice spell on China-Japan relations; it is also Tokyo that
called for the Xi-Abe meeting. Now that Abe has talked the talk, he now
needs to walk the walk."

Earlier, it seemed that China had rejected the possibility of a summit
between Abe and Xi. A Xinhua commentary on November 3 stated that while
Xi would receive Abe, "that does not necessarily mean Abe's long-sought
formal talks with Xi during APEC would come true, which demands Abe
extend good faith and take real action to create the proper atmosphere."

China had demanded that Abe cease visiting the notorious Yasukuni war
shrine--seen as a glorification of Japan's militarist past--and admit
that a territorial dispute exists over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands,
something the Japanese government has refused to do. Abe has not
publically indicated any change in his policies.

In the months leading up to the APEC meeting, Abe seemed to take a more
conciliatory stance toward China. He avoided visits to Yasukuni,
although ministers in his government went to the shrine in August and
October. In December 2013, Abe became the first sitting prime minister
to visit the shrine since Junichiro Koizumi in 2006. The shrine
symbolically inters soldiers who died in Japanese wars, including 14
convicted, class-A war criminals from World War II.

The Chinese and South Korean governments have used the visits to the
shrine to whip up anti-Japanese nationalism at home. In both countries
many people still have first-hand memories of the crimes committed by
Japanese imperialism during the 1930s and 1940s.

Abe's meeting with Xi should in no way be interpreted as a sign of an
easing of Tokyo's agenda of reviving Japanese militarism. Behind the
scenes, the Obama administration pushed for Abe to meet Xi because it
feared that his confrontational stance toward Beijing was beginning to
cut across Washington's own interests in the region.

Tensions between China and Japan have flared over the Diaoyu/Senkaku
islands since November 2012, when Japan nationalized three of the
islands. Aircraft and vessels from the two countries regularly confront
each other in the area, risking the danger of conflict. According to the
Japanese government, 110 Chinese ships entered waters around the islands
in September, to which the Japanese coast guard has responded.

US Secretary of State John Kerry stated on Saturday, before the APEC
meeting: "Any steps that the two countries can take to improve the
relationship and reduce tensions is helpful, not just to the two
countries, but helpful to the region."

The US in fact inflamed tensions by promising to defend Japan in any
military conflict with China over the islands. Washington has
strengthened military ties with other countries, including Japan, the
Philippines and Australia, as part of its "pivot" to Asia, a strategy
aimed at asserting US hegemony in the region and encircling and
preparing for war against China.

At the same time, however, the Obama administration does not want to be
drawn into a war with China on behalf of Japanese imperialism, in which
the agenda would be set by Tokyo. While the Senkakus have been the
touchstone in Tokyo for whipping up Japanese nationalism, the small,
uninhabited, rocky outcrops in the East China Sea have no political or
strategic significance for US imperialism.

Washington hoped that a conciliatory move by Abe in Beijing might also
create a better environment in which the Japanese and South Korean
governments can patch up their relationship in line with US interests.
One point of friction is the disputed islands known as Dokdo in South
Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

In a November 7 article, Ralph Cossa of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, a think-tank with close links to the US defence
establishment, called on Abe to acknowledge that a dispute exists over
the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Cossa wrote: "As an added benefit, such a
statement would provide additional reassurance that Japan will not use
force against Dokdo. One would hope that Seoul would focus on the
positive parts of this message and not the repeated sovereignty claim."

Abe has signaled his readiness for a summit with South Korea's Park
Geun-hye, who has so far refused to meet him. Relations between the two
key US allies in the region took a turn for the worse in 2012 when Lee
Myung-bak became the first sitting South Korean president to visit the
disputed Dokdo islets.

The animosity between Tokyo and Seoul is a concern for Washington, as it
has prevented them from developing closer military ties in support of
the US "pivot." In 2012, the two governments were on the verge of
signing a military intelligence sharing agreement at Washington's
encouragement. The deal was derailed minutes before it was to be signed
after opposition erupted to the Lee government's attempt to push it
through without informing the National Assembly, South Korea's main
legislative body.

After Park came to power in February 2013, she would not meet with Abe
one-on-one. Obama was forced to hold a trilateral summit in March to
bring the two leaders together. Obama's selection of Mark Lippert as the
new ambassador to South Korea is viewed as a means to pressure Seoul to
align itself more closely with US military plans. Lippert is well
connected to the Pentagon and was Obama's chief strategist for East
Asian affairs.

(5) TPP & TAP Lies - Paul Craig Roberts

From: chris lancenet <chrislancenet@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 21:03:36 -0700

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39936.htm

The Lie Machine

Paul Craig Roberts

October 12, 2014 "ICH" - I have come to the conclusion that the West is
a vast lie machine for the secret agendas of vested interests. Consider,
for example, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the
Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnership.

These so-called “partnerships” are in fact vehicles by which US
corporations make themselves immune to the sovereign laws of foreign
countries in which they do business. A sovereign country that attempts
to enforce its laws against an American corporation can be sued by the
corporation for “restraint of trade.” For example, if Monsanto wants to
sell GMO seeds in France or US corporations wish to sell
genetically-modified foods in France, and France enforces its laws
against GMOs, the Transatlantic Trade Partnership allows France to be
sued in jurisdictions outside the courts of France for “restraint of
trade.” In other words, preventing the entry into France of a prohibited
product constitutes restraint of trade.

This is the reason that the US has insisted that the Transatlantic and
Transpacific Partnerships be totally secretive and negotiated outside
the democratic process. Not even the US Congress has been permitted
knowledge of the negotiations.

Obviously, the Europeans and Asians who are agreeing with the terms of
these “partnerships” are the bought-and-paid-for agents of the US
corporations. If the partnerships go through, the only law in Europe and
Asia will be US law. The European and Asian government officials who
agree to the hegemony of US corporations over the laws of their
countries will be so handsomely paid that they could enter the realm of
the One Percent.

It is interesting to compare the BBC’s coverage (October 10) with that
of RT (October 11). The BBC reports that the aim of the Transatlantic
Partnership is to remove “barriers to bilateral commerce” and to
stimulate more trade and investment, economic growth and employment. The
BBC does not report that the removal of barriers includes barriers
against GMO products.

Everyone knows that the European Commission is corrupt. Who would be
surprised if its members hope to be enriched by the American
corporations? Little wonder the European Commission declared that
concerns that the Transatlantic partnership would impact the sovereignty
of countries is misplaced. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29572475

RT, which is restrained in reporting truth because it operates inside
the US, still manages to come to the point in its headline: “No TTIP:
Mass protests slam US-EU trade deal as ‘Corporate power grab’.”

All over Europe people are in the streets in mass rallies against secret
agreements by their corrupt governments for Washington to take over
their lives and businesses. RT reports that “social networks have been
mobilized for a mass campaign that has been calling on Europeans and
Americans to take action against ‘the biggest corporate power grab in a
decade’.”

RT quotes a leader of the demonstration in Berlin who says the secret
agreements “give corporations more rights they’ve ever had in history.”
As we all know, corporations already have too many rights.

“Protests are planned in 22 countries across Europe–marches, rallies and
other public events–in over 1,000 locations in UK, France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, The Czech Republic and
Scandinavian countries.”

Did you hear about this latest American corporate power grab from Fox
“News,” CNN, New York Times, London Times, ABC? Of course not. Did you
hear about the massive protests against it? Of course not. You only hear
what the interest groups permit you to hear.

RT reports that the main aim of the international protests is “to
reclaim democracy” and to put an end to the secret deals that are
destroying life for everyone but the American corporations,
organizations now regarded worldwide as the epitome of evil.
http://rt.com/news/195144-europe-protests-stop-ttip/

These phony “trade agreements” are advocated as “free trade removal of
tariffs,” but what they remove are the sovereignties of countries.
America is already ruled by corporations. If these faux “trade
agreements” go through, Europe and Asia will also be ruled by American
corporations.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for
Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal