Must-Read: Timothy B. Lee: The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Great for Elites. Is It Good for Anyone Else?

…where powerful interest groups try to use trade rules to overrule democratically elected governments…. The WTO’s dispute-settlement process… puts pressure on countries to actually keep the promises they make in trade deals…. But the complex, secretive, and anti-democratic way the TPP is being crafted rubs a lot of people the wrong way….

We expect the laws that govern our economic lives will be made in a transparent, representative, and accountable fashion. The TPP negotiation process is none of these — it’s secretive, it’s dominated by powerful insiders, and it provides little opportunity for public input. The Obama administration argues that it’s important for TPP to succeed so that the United States — not China — gets to shape the rules that govern trade across the Pacific. But this argument only makes sense if you believe US negotiators are taking positions that are in the broad interests of the American public. If, as critics contend, USTR’s agenda is heavily tilted toward the interests of a few well-connected interest groups, then the deal may not be good for America at all…