Obama backs Trans Pacific Partnership — APEC summit

President Barack Obama urged the U.S. Congress to quickly approve a 12-nation Pacific trade pact early in 2016, telling reporters the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was essential to the American economy as well as national security.

Participating governments now have a window of time to ratify or block the TPP.

“We were able to complete the negotiations thanks to the commitment of the leaders here”, Mr Obama said at the beginning of the meeting. The administration has vowed to debate it in parliament before any ratification.

As the government weighs whether or not to support the deal, it is also studying the issue of compensation for affected Canadian industries.

Delegates from the TPP countries announcing the deal last month.

He also said that India would be part of that group because of its sheer size and significance.

Pharmaceutical interests are pushing for a lengthy period of patent exclusivity for certain types of drugs into the TPP agreement, far beyond what they have today.

“It would be very inappropriate right now for us to commit to specific packages given that we’re actually reviewing the agreement overall”, she said.

He saw them as “stop-gap” deals and a “fallback position” in the absence of a solid global arrangement under the World Trade Organisation.

Under the pending TPP, Canada will grant a small amount of access to all of its supply managed sectors over five years, to varying degrees. That was the burning question on the front page of a Manila newspaper Wednesday as the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders’ summit opened.

The full text of the TPP is long, complex and subject to a complicated number of exceptions and side-agreements.

Members of APEC who are not involved in the TPP are China, Russia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea. “That’s President Obama’s challenge and we obviously encourage all those legislators in Washington to give the TPP their support”. “A good deal must level the playing field and improve the competitiveness of manufacturers and their workers in the United States”.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) led to a few auto job losses and accelerated the shift of low-skilled factory jobs to Mexico. In contrast, the United States negotiated a 25 year timeline for phasing out similar tariffs.

Apart from the APEC leaders’ summit, Aquino enumerated agreements with separate countries through accomplished bilateral meetings on the sidelines.

Will it help grow USA manufacturing? Once implemented, the partnership will spur economic growth and enhance competitiveness.

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