The Trans-Pacific Partnership

by Lim, C. L.; Elms, Deborah K.; Low, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9781107028661
• ISBN10: 1107028663
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-11-12
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks attempt to link together at least nine countries in three continents to create a 'high-quality, twenty-first century agreement'. Such an agreement is intended to open markets to competition between the partners more than ever before in sectors ranging from goods and services to investment, and includes rigorous rules in the fields of intellectual property, labour protection and environmental conservation. The TPP also aims to improve regulatory coherence, enhance production supply chains and help boost small and medium-sized enterprises. It could transform relations with regions such as Latin America, paving the way to an eventual Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, or see innovations translated into the global trade regulatory system operating under the WTO. However, given the tensions between strategic and economic concerns, the final deal could still collapse into something closer to a standard, 'twentieth-century' trade agreement.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is 'high quality, twenty-first century' anyway?

The Past: Origins of the Agreement

An overview and snapshot of the TPP negotiations

US PTAs: what's been done and what it means for the TPP negotiations

From the P4 to the TPP: transplantation or transformation?

Incorporating development among diverse members

The Present: Twenty-First Century Elements and Obstacles

Negotiations over market access in goods

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations: rules of origin

Trade in services

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement towards Innovations in Investment Rule-Making

The intellectual property chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Regulatory coherence in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks

Environmental issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Labour standards and the TPP

What is to be done with export restrictions?

The Future: High-Quality Meets Regional and Global Realities

Achieving a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific: does the TPP present the most attractive path?

APEC and TPP: are they mutually reinforcing?

Coping with multiple uncertainties: Latin America in the TPP negotiations

The TPP: multilateralizing regionalism or the securization of trade policy?

The TPP in a multilateral world

The TPP Negotiations: The Quest for Quality

Conclusions

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.