They aren't free trade negotiations. They are protectionist trade deals meant to exclude China from trade in its region as it rises. (China has been trying, similarly, to arrange ASEAN trade deals to exclude the United States).
This is a bit of a myopic view isn't it? Given that these treaties often force Most Favored Nation status on the participants, the end result is lower tariffs overall (if only that they can't make it worse), so pro-free-trade
The reason I say this is that it's being used to exclude certain countries and it sets up rules that explicitly favor particular countries.
Given its strategic nature its role is to protect both Western powers and regional countries that want investment from the West and to grow against the rise of China.
Since it protects 40% of the world GDP at the explicit and planned sacrifice of other nations and because it is used to instantiate international laws that protect those same countries I call it protectionist. And if you look at the leaked memos it's really not so big a stretch. It's also been called protectionist by people not aware of its strategic value (e.g. Assange).
