In this blog, I have but one question, regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has just been made available for one’s reading pleasure.  Here is my question.  For an agreement that is touted as a free trade compact, why do we need a 5, 500 page document (parts of which I have read)?  If we are serious about free trade, forgive simple-mindedness, but why don’t the nations agree to the following language:

“From the effective date of this agreement, trade in all goods and services shall be unobstructed by any legal barriers, including tariffs, quotas, and taxes.  The one exception is national security-related goods or services, which may be regulated as any nations sees fit and so designates.”

Now that sounds like a free trade agreement.  What I am reading in the TPP sounds more like obfuscation designed for some as yet undetermined purpose—but not really to promote free trade.  If I were the average person, I would tend to think that these nations were up to little good economically.  I might even be persuaded (even if there was little evidence) that the TPP was designed to benefit other nations at the expense of the United States economy.  As I said I have read a couple of parts already and I can’t yet figure out what the parties are up too—the bureaucratic language doesn’t help.  Which of course raises another issue for me.  Why do bureaucrats (alleged experts) always write these documents?  They might even be bureaucrat-lawyers—the worst combination imaginable.

I have had my say.  You may now ignore me.