Pacific nations sign TPP trade deal

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. The countries also include Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

“The TPP is New Zealand’s biggest free trade agreement to date”. However, protesters argue it will cost jobs and impact the sovereignty of Asia-Pacific nations. Policy analyst Simon Lester on the TPP signing and its implicationsCCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Simon Lester, trade policy analyst at the Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies. The TPP has been a source of criticism from many quarters within and outside the 12 member countries.

Although the signing marks the end of the negotiating process, members still have two years to get the deal approved at home before it becomes legally binding. “TPP will change that”, Obama said.

The United States began negotiations to join the deal in 2008, prompting a number of other Pacific rim countries to join in.

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said the agreement would be tabled next week in parliament.

Other Asian economies, including Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand, have shown interest in joining the group. However US trade negotiator Michael Froman said he was confident of getting bi-partisan support for the deal because of the significant benefits to the US, though he couldn’t say when that was likely to occur.

Ahead of the signing ceremony at the SkyCity Convention Centre in downtown Auckland, Froman and his counterparts met to provide updates on their respective domestic ratification processes.

“Contrary to big business and government spin, the TPP is bad news for the peoples of all the countries involved – it is an outright attack on democracy, human rights, public services, health and the environment”.

Opposition from many US 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 TPP marks the first time that New Zealand and the U.S. have entered into an FTA relationship”.