NZ Trade: Trans Pacific FTA Gaining Momentum
March 26th, 2010
What started as a 2001 FTA with Singapore is set to become a powerful “new generation” regional FTA the US has made a top trade priority. The US also wants to expand the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) beyond the current eight countries involved in the talks and make it much broader. It has already told Malaysia it would prefer to do a trade deal with it through the TPP than a bilateral FTA. And Canada could also be a potential member.
Scoping talks on the agreement in Melbourne looked at tariffs, non-tariff barriers, services trade, and intellectual property, and membership at this stage is staying at eight, with the possibility of later expansion. There will be two more lots of talks on the agreement this year, in June and December. Current TPP members are NZ, Singapore, Chile and Brunei with the US, Aust, Peru and Vietnam wanting to join now. The informal deadline is to have it concluded by November 2011 when President Barack Obama will host APEC in Hawaii.
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