TPP pact signed, but a tough road lies ahead

– The biggest deal of its kind in history, the TPP aims to remove tariffs and other barriers to free trade between 12 Pacific Rim nations.

UPS, a global logistics provider and leading advocate for global trade, commends the 12 nations who have come together to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact that is vital to the USA economy, supporting global growth and job creation.

Opposition from many U.S. Democrats and some Republicans could mean a vote on the TPP is unlikely before President Barack Obama, a supporter of the TPP, leaves office early in 2017.

The countries will have the next two years to complete domestic procedures, including the ratification by their parliaments, before the agreement enters into force.

Noting the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, which does not include China, a ministry statement said: “China is studying it, and evaluation work is under way”. “In 2016, we should hope for the TPP’s defeat and the beginning of a new era of trade agreements that don’t reward the powerful and punish the weak”, he recently wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

The government estimates the overall benefit of the TPP to New Zealand will be at least $2.7 billion a year by 2030.

“We should get TPP done this year and give more American workers the shot at success they deserve and help more American businesses compete and win around the world”.

Prime Minister John Key took the stage to a standing ovation, to welcome delegates and emphasise the benefits of the trade agreement.

The report noted that South Korea is expected to lose a considerable portion of the comparative advantage it enjoyed under the Seoul-Washington free trade agreement after the TPP goes into effect.

United States trade representative Michael Froman said at the signing ceremony that the agreement was “never directed against” any specific country and that it was “important to have a constructive economic relationship” with China. The TPP has been a source of criticism from many quarters within and outside the 12 member countries.

Malaysia has been the first to ratify the deal – an unprecedented step in that country for an worldwide treaty but thought necessary because the deal requires several amendments to Malaysian laws.

Opponents say the pact will cost American jobs, flood the USA market with foreign products, harm the environment and threaten human health with unsafe imported food.