The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Quest for a Twenty-first Century Trade Agreement

by C. L. Lim (Editor), Deborah Kay Elms (Editor), Patrick Low (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781139564885
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2012
Series:	WTO Internal Only
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

C. L. Lim is an international lawyer and former trade negotiator. He is currently Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and chairs the East Asian International Economic Law and Policy Programme (EAIEL). He is also Visiting Professor at King's College London and a barrister.
Deborah Kay Elms is Head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade and Negotiations (TFCTN) and Senior Fellow of International Political Economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Patrick Low is the Chief Economist at the World Trade Organization. He is also an Adjunct Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, and a Senior Fellow of the Fung Global Institute, Hong Kong.

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. What is 'high quality, twenty-first century' anyway?; Part II. The Past: Origins of the Agreement: 2. An overview and snapshot of the TPP negotiations; 3. US PTAs: what's been done and what it means for the TPP negotiations; 4. From the P4 to the TPP: transplantation or transformation?; 5. Incorporating development among diverse members; Part III. The Present: Twenty-First Century Elements and Obstacles: 6. Negotiations over market access in goods; 7. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations: rules of origin; 8. Trade in services; 9. Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement towards Innovations in Investment Rule-Making; 10. The intellectual property chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership; 11. Regulatory coherence in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks; 12. Environmental issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership; 13. Labour standards and the TPP; 14. What is to be done with export restrictions?; Part IV. The Future: High-Quality Meets Regional and Global Realities: 15. Achieving a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific: does the TPP present the most attractive path?: 16. APEC and TPP: are they mutually reinforcing?; 17. Coping with multiple uncertainties: Latin America in the TPP negotiations; 18. The TPP: multilateralizing regionalism or the securization of trade policy?; 19. The TPP in a multilateral world; Part V. The TPP Negotiations: The Quest for Quality: 20. Conclusions.