Delay in TPP trade pact hurts U.S. pivot to Asia

There is a way the US might have made it work, however.

A bit less bombast and force and a bit more give and take, respect, friendliness and an attempt to understand cultures different to their own might have helped them.

And of course, openness and NO secrecy.

TPP is anything BUT a free trade agreement. What it IS is a neo-mercantilist power grab.

Great News - Japan and the rest of Asia should not accept all the GMO and chemical ladened food products that the USA wants to export - that other nations won't accept.

Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. 40% of global economy - wow!

These comments about all this horrible food being imported into Japan is nonsense. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

I don't think a month or a few months delay will "hurt the US pivot towards Asia". The TPP is very complex and far reaching involving 12 countries ~> 12 not 2 or 3..

The goal of making 2013 the deadline was ridiculous and was set up to rush the negotiating countries into making hasty decisions which would most likely hurt the individual nations' best interests. (Aside from the US that is.)

I hope Japan prods cautiously and takes the time necessary for making good decisions. Our future depends on it.

@paulinusa: The only thing I'm worried about is with all of this "food mislabeling" going around, I'm not sure what I'm buying.

As far as this article goes, GOOD! I don't want any secret trade agreements that even members of the US's own gov't can't read.

If it needs to be secret, then it can't be good.

These comments about all this horrible food being imported into Japan is nonsense. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

You won't be able to make a decision yourself, because food labeling requirements will quickly be reduced to almost nothing. Companies can sue governments to remove food labeling requirements when they think (and sure they do!) that they are non-tariff barriers. Sentences will be passed by a body of three judges. No appeal is possible. TPP does not stipulate sovereign decisions made by parliaments.

Paulinusa - Sadly, sometimes there is no choice as GMO products are used as ingredients, in such food as bread! Here's a link that was easy to find with blinded bias eyes: http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-china-rejects-more-us-corn-amid-rising-trade-conflict/1808273.html