El Reg said: "As was the case throughout negotiations of the first deal, there's no text for the proposed treaty. Just what Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam signed up for therefore remains obscure."
And not all that was agreed to is in the treaty text. Some of it is in additional agreements which sit outside the treaty but which override it. This is how the final issues were addressed recently.
The hold up in the treaty has been Canada's insistence on having some of the worst bits of it watered down or excluded. With the US gone, that left Canada as the second largest economy in the treaty, and so with additional negotiating power to get those changes made.
The US and certain other parties originally tried to keep Canada out of the negotiations, planning on presenting them with a fait accompli later and telling them to sign it (TPP was intended to replace NAFTA). Canada elbowed their way into the negotiations mainly to try to undermine them from the inside.
Australia seemed to be the main proponent for signing the treaty as is. Much hate was directed from their government towards Canada over delays caused by Canada insisting on changes.
There's a good chance that the worst aspects of the TPP have been de-fanged in the past year and it's now been watered down to a normal trade treaty.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
