Trans
Pacific Partnership
The United States
(US), Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries signed the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) agreement to lower trade barriers, bolster worker protections
and set standards for a raft of other industries. The TPP is designed to
facilitate trade among the US and a host of other countries scattered across
both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
The 10 other
countries of the Pacific Rim which signed the agreement are Australia, Brunei,
Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
China, the world's second-largest economy, is not part of the agreement. This
TPP agreement encompassing nearly 40 percent of the world economy will now have
to be ratified by the lawmakers of each country.
What will TPP do?
• It cuts trade tariffs and sets
common standards in trade for 12 Pacific-rim countries, including the US and
Japan.
• The partnership eliminates more than
18000 taxes that various countries put on made-in-America goods; this will
level the playing field for farmers, ranchers and manufacturers.
• The TPP deal also sets minimum
standards on issues ranging from workers’ rights to environmental protection.
• It also sets up dispute settlement
guidelines between governments and foreign investors separate from national
courts.
• Unfortunately, the TPP will not
create jobs. While the administration touts the TPP as a job-creating,
wage-raising enterprise, but it has not made public any employment or sectoral
impacts study.
Overall Benefits of TPP
• Includes the Strongest Worker
Protections of Any Trade Agreement in History
• Includes the Strongest Environmental
Protections of Any Trade Agreement in History
• Helps Small Businesses Benefit from
Global Trade
• Promotes E-Commerce, Protects
Digital Freedom, and Preserves an Open Internet
• Levels the Playing Field for US
Workers by Disciplining State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
• Prioritizes Good Governance and
Fighting Corruption
• Includes First Ever Development
Chapter
• Capitalizes on America’s Position as
the World Leader in Services Exports
How TPP Upgrades NAFTA?
The past trade deals including the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have not always lived up to the
expectations. The TPP improves substantially on NAFTA’s shortcomings, it
delivers on that promise. TPP upgrades existing standards and sets new
standards that reflect today’s economic realities:
• It adopts highest environmental
standards of any trade agreement.
• It adopts the highest labor
standards, including fully-enforceable requirements to protect the freedom to
form unions and bargain collectively.
• It includes the first-ever measures
to ensure that state-owned enterprises compete on a commercial basis.
• It sets the standards to protect
digital freedom, by preserving the free flow of information across borders.
• It improves protections for 40
million American workers whose jobs depend on innovation.
Why was the TPP deal controversial?
ü The
TPP deal has been controversial because of the secret negotiations that have
shaped it over the past five years and the perceived threat to an array of
interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers.
ü Although
the complex deal sets tariff reduction schedules on hundreds of imported items
from pork and beef in Japan to pickup trucks in the United States, one issue
that has been controversial is the minimum period of protection of the rights
to data used to make biological drugs by companies.
ü A
politically charged set of issues surrounding protections for dairy farmers was
also addressed. New Zealand, home to the world’s biggest dairy exporter wanted
increased access to US, Canadian and Japanese markets.
ü Separately,
the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan also agreed rules governing the
auto trade that dictate how much of a vehicle must be made within the TPP
region in order to qualify for duty-free status.
=========================================
No comments:
Post a Comment