Totally. Wtf. TPPA was headlines for years, now this is signed and I've never heard of it. And I follow the news pretty closely. (kiwi here)
https://rymndp.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/us-withdrawal-on-tra...
It's funny how it's all turned out. Trump ditched the TPAA, and along with it all those onerous copyright laws everybody hated. So we got a nicely watered down version. China steps into the void. But now on the day the RCEP they championed is signed, China ups the ante on the trade war it's having with Australia. They've banned just our wine imports, and threatening iron ore is next.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/r/ar-BB1b2NMT
The trigger for this trade war? Our prime minister called for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, right after Trump intimated it was bio-engineered by China and they were engaged in a cover up. Right now China is engaged in what looks to be genocide against their Muslim population, the Uighurs, egregious breaking of agreements with the UK over Hong Hong, threats to Taiwan, destabilising "Island Building" in the South China Sea, and we choose to take a principled stand over a ... conspiracy theory.
I don't know what it feels like in NZ, but we Ozzies feel like we are living in interesting times.
Enlighten me, please.
We got Murdoch owning 90% of the news and the other 10% too scared to piss him off.
What's your excuse?
- Straya
...
More seriously though, my guess is this is normally the thing that would hit the news cycle a month or two out but because of covid and every media outlet in the world cashing in on the last few rounds of trump derangement I'm not surprised it was missed.