Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Pros and Cons [View all]

[lovemydog]

First off, what is it:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a proposed free trade agreement between the U.S and 11 other trading partners bordering the Pacific Ocean. Current trade between the countries is $1.5 trillion in goods (2012 estimate) and $242 billion in services (2011 estimate). Once approved, it would be bigger than the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), currently the world’s largest free trade area. It would be slightly smaller than the other large regional trade agreement being negotiated, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the U.S. and the European Union.

The TPP is between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam. The countries involved are responsible for 40% of the world's total GDP of $88 trillion, 26% of its trade, and 793 million of its consumers.

Notably, the agreement excludes China. It's meant to balance the trade dominance of both China and India in East Asia. It also provides a trade alliance that gives the U.S. an excuse to intervene in trade disputes in the oil-rich South China Sea. Like most other trade agreements, it removes tariffs on goods and services, and sets reciprocal trade quotas. Unlike most agreements, but like the TTIP, it removes non-tariff blocks to trade and harmonizes regulations and statutes.

The TPP covers a wide range of goods and services, including financial services, telecommunications and even food safety standards. In this way, it affects foreign policy and even laws within countries. For example, it suggests that countries set up an agency like the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to analyze the costs and benefits of new regulations.

http://useconomy.about.com/od/Trade-Agreements/fl/What-Is-the-Trans-Pacific-Partnership.htm

Anyone feel free to post better explanations of it, if you have it! Thanks.