Japan, 11 Pacific Rim partners ink TPP in Auckland ceremony

Canadas Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland, left, shakes hands with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key after signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016.

U.S. led Trans Pacific Partnership, which is one of the biggest deals in the history, has been signed in the New Zealand on Thursday.

The 12 nations include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

While approval of the trade pact is a top priority of President Barack Obama this year, his final year in office, it faces stiff opposition from many of his fellow Democrats in Congress.

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

Hundreds of protesters set up camp in front of the Sky City Convention Center in Auckland, where the signing took place, while thousands of others blockaded nearby streets and highway ramps around the area, bringing traffic to a standstill. “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.

On Monday, Vietnamese and Australian businesses also explored trade and investment opportunities that would be created by the TPP during a forum held in Sydney.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Thursday he remained confident that U.S. lawmakers would ultimately approve it.

While many of Korea’s trading partners, like the United States and Japan, are celebrating the new trade pact, Korea, which is not part of the TPP, is concerned about the possible impact on its already struggling economy.

“Right now, the rules of global trade too often undermine our values and put our workers and businesses at a disadvantage”, Obama said in a statement Wednesday.

The World Bank has estimated TPP could lift Australia’s economic output by as little as 0.7 per cent by 2030, although the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the deal has many potential benefits for the nation, including reducing costs in global supply chains.

Senator Sherrod Brown said while signing may be a victory for the corporations who negotiated this deal behind closed doors, it is a major loss for American workers.