How an Australia-Canada-Japan Led TPP-11 Trade Deal Compares to China’s Alternative

Forbes

13 March 2018

Eleven countries just signed the revived Trans Pacific Partnership, a huge free trade deal that once stood to cut import tariffs in 40% of the world economy. The United States backed out last year, ceding the leadership informally to Australia, Canada and Japan. The remaining 11 states went on to tweak the agreement. The slimming-down and remaining signatures make this trade deal more attractive to businesses than a similar concept advanced by economic superpower China, analysts say. It’s known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP.

The streamlined deal, now called TPP-11 or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, beats the already simplified, Beijing-backed RCEP, experts believe. This version would mean exporters, factories or retailers stand to get a fairer shake within the TPP-11 countries.

“TPP-11 continues to be the deeper and more ambitious program than RCEP, despite some watering down of key provisions,” says Asian Development Bank lead economist Jayant Menon. “In many ways, TPP-11 is a better and fairer agreement than its predecessor.”

… That scope gives it one advantage over the TPP-11, says Pradumna Bickram Rana, coordinator of the International Political Economy Programme under Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. China, which chafes sometimes against the United States and other Western countries over trade issues, never applied for TPP membership.

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Last updated on 14/03/2018