From article:
As Kim Elliott of the Center for Global Development points out, the benefits of the TPP to clothing exporters like Vietnam will be reduced by the US’s so-called “yarn forward” rules. The policy restricts the use of raw materials and textiles from countries outside the agreement — in this case largely China. The US textile industry is not the lobbying force it once was, but it is certainly strong enough to punch loopholes in the fabric of trade deals.
(Speaking of malign and powerful US trade lobbies, nor will the US liberalise its own trade-distorting agricultural support programmes such as the rice subsidies that disadvantage Vietnamese exporters in third markets.)
Such so-called “rules of origin”, designed to prevent exports from one country essentially being imported and re-exported by another to take advantage of trade privileges, have reduced the impact of many rich countries’ trade preference schemes.
