Obama sucks up to our trade minister

My first reaction in reading the headline was "WTF? How did that suddenly happen?". The headline on the article reads "Trade pact close to reality. says Robb". Andrew Robb is Australia's trade minister, and he's taking about that dreadful abomination the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. I was aghast that apparently things were all going gangbusters with it and everyone was near an agreement. 

But hang on..... For a start, what did he actually say? After all the Abbott gov is the last place you'd find truth. Perhaps Robb was simply trying to be upbeat in the face of his gov's spectacular poll collapse? You do have to be careful with the language in a lot of main stream media reports. What Robb actually says is left to the very end of the article:

He was upbeat about the countries agreeing to the TPP.

"It's ready to be sealed," Robb said.

"A few big things have to end up back on the table yet, but it is close.

"I would hope we are going to see progress obviously this year and sooner rather than later." more

So he's talking shit. The article actually says he's "Upbeat" FFS. It couldn't be any clearer.And what exactly are those "few big things" left to be put back on the table? Ummm, the part about countries giving up it's sovereignty to US multinational corporations? Absolutely. I can't see any agreement being reached between all those countries, where Obama is not negotiating but demanding, that they sign away their sovereignty to his country's social failure.

Probably for me the most annoying thing from the article is that Robb is already in the US for something else, but yet Obama is sweet talking him to entice him to go to Washington right now for more TPP talks.

Mr Robb, in the US to lead the Australian government's delegation for the G'Day USA promotion, says the Obama administration has attempted to entice him to Washington DC for TPP talks. 

Mr Robb told AAP on Saturday he would wait for formal TPP discussions scheduled "in a couple of weeks". more

That may be viewed as sweet talking. I'd call it more-so bullying.