What's so great about signing "free trade" deals all over the place?

I'm from the generation that saw first-hand the manifold blessings of the original Canada-US Free-Trade Agreement back in '87. The ink was hardly dry on that master-work when it was superseded by NAFTA, and the deluge of Canadian jobs heading for Mexico began in earnest.

Now we've got the usual suspects singing hosannas over the grand-daddy of all free trade deals, the biggest free trade deal the country has ever reached.

And this is allegedly a good thing.

Bear in mind that the TPP has its genesis in the US conniving to carve out a Pacific trading bloc that would exclude its number one economic rival, China.

Bear in mind also, that while the TPP signatories may indeed account for 40% of global trade, China and India by themselves account for another 40%, and neither are part of the TPP.

What we're really doing is throwing all our eggs into one basket, and joining a trading bloc dominated by an empire in decline.

How smart is that?