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Japan, New Zealand press for open markets to boost recovery

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I really do enjoy how Cindy Ardern talks like a progressive and acts like a neo-liberal conservative. How long before her sycophantic followers wise-up. Japan of course are the exact opposite; free Trade is fine.... so long as all our major industries are protected with tariffs and subsidies.

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I really do enjoy how Cindy Ardern talks like a progressive and acts like a neo-liberal conservative.

Done right I don't see any inherent conflict in advocating progressive social policies while also advocating for free markets. The problems with the capitalist societies do not necessarily stem from too much competition in the market but more often from too little. Advocating for competitive markets means advocating against oligopoly, monopoly, tariffs and subsidies as these all act to stifle competition and permit market power to be concentrated in fewer larger firms. Free trade improves the competitive environment.

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Here is the difficulty with “ free trade pacts” for all nation with China, south Korea and Japan.

the other country will really open its markets while China, south Korea and Japan SAY They will open their markets.

if you want a recent example, The EU Japan FTA. Tariffs on cars went down in Europe while cheese and wine has become even more expensive in Japan. That is because of other protective measures by Japan because otherwise the entire “ cheese” producers and wine producers in Japan would go Boom in a year.

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"Free Trade" is a misnomer - evidently.

It means China can export its spare capacity to trading partner countries whilst importing productivity from trading partner countries.

All the big box store operators, big corporates, luxury groups etcare get richer whilst workers getting poorer, because no matter how hard they work, they can't get a pay rise, because of a lack of productivity increases.

The recent RCEP free trade agreement specifically excluded provisions for labour, environment AND state subsidies, to please China.

The TPP MK2 is also poised to exclude labour, environmental and state subsidies provisions.

Workers outside China are stuffed! No matter how 'socialist' you think ms Ardern is.

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Free trade improves the competitive environment.

...heard that before but does it improve the lives of citizens?

NZ Hoki fish is a national treasure. It used to provide a comfortable income for thousands if NZ fisherfamilies, and many thousands more processing the fish. Then the government concentrated catch quotas into the hands of a handful of wealthy individuals/corporates, then processing jobs went to China, then all processing jobs went to China because of competition from those initial processing jobs that went to China.

Loose loose all round for the country. Win, win for the handful of elite politically powerful families.

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"While continuing to promote WTO reform, Japan will aspire for the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.”

What kind of reform? The WTO already has rules against anti-competitive measures like 'state subsidies that it's not enforcing on countries like China.

The WTO is trying to get even more pro-China people on board.

RCEP enshrines in law (by allowing) state subsidies, forced (slave) labour, but is promoted in the main stream media as free trade.

Wake up!

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How long before her sycophantic followers wise-up.

Um, she's a compassionate, competent leader who just won an election by a landslide due to the immense popularity of her platform, proposals, and past action, unlike some Losers who are in positions of power, but have never held the confidence of the people whom they preside over.

But hey, don't let your far-right ideology let those pesky 'facts' and 'reality' get in the way of your rhetoric, right?

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