Beijing favors regional free deals despite Pacific pact

Trade ministers from 12 participating countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam – signed the pact in Auckland early Thursday.

The agreement covers a region responsible for about one-third of all world trade, although noticeably missing from the agreement is China, which is forging ahead with its own trade deals.

“China is studying it and evaluation work is under way”, according to the ministry statement issued after representatives of 12 nations including the United States and Japan signed the TPP at a ceremony in New Zealand.

Mr. Froman said after five years of negotiation, signing the TPP is an important milestone in our efforts to set high-standard rules of the road in the Asia Pacific region and more generally, and to deliver an agreement that will benefit American workers, farmers and businesses.

US Trade Representative Michael Froman has said the current administration is doing everything in its power to move the deal and on Thursday told reporters he was confident the deal would get the necessary support in Congress.

Despite Obama’s comments, the USA has also sought to play down any overt anti-China rhetoric.

The TPP is expected to open up a market with a population of 800 million and a gross domestic product worth $27.5 trillion for mutual benefit of the countries participating in the pact.

“The signing marks the end of the negotiating process”.

While the 12 trade ministers were shaking hands in Auckland, thousands of protesters clogged the streets outside to voice their opposition. Opponents have criticised the secrecy surrounding TPP talks, raised concerns about reduced access to things like affordable medicines, and a clause which allows foreign investors the right to sue if they feel their profits have been impacted by a law or policy in the host country.

Proponents say the agreement will increase trade and make it more equitable by eliminating most tariffs and other barriers.

“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.