U.S. stamp put on Asian Economy by TPP Trade

Hours long negotiations have been gone into concluding the TPP (Trans – pacific partnership) trade deal and have come down to disputes concerning drug patents, car parts and milk imports.  U.S. has been putting efforts into this since 7 years and the purpose has been to impose an American vision on Asia’s economic order. This 12-nation accord was finally concluded this Monday and is the biggest trade pact ever made. If Congress approves this, the pact could go a long way in eliminating duties from a number of goods, uniform rules will be established on intellectual property, environment, labor rights and other trade and investment issues. U.S. hopes in future this could be used as a model agreement.

Although we won’t be getting to see the agreement details for some days, it will help certain U.S. industries and hurt certain others. To say in general, larger companies (entertainment, pharmaceuticals etc.) in California will benefit from this and other companies (car parts dealers) will have to deal with more competition from foreign companies. Now California farmers will be able to export dairy products and rice to japan. On the other side japan would be able to import trucks and cars over next years. The Hollywood and other entertainment industries will also get a boost from the accord which sought 70 years of protection for music, copyrighted films and others despite many group criticizing it for not allowing information to a freer flow. Despite chaos on both the sides concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the deal, majority of the U.S. workers won’t be affected by the deal. According to a study, this would only have a modest effect on the economic growth of U.S. However, the overall effect on the jobs will be very little. The accord is about both economic globalization and geo – political competition. Obama said, “When more than 95% of our potential customers live outside our borders, we can’t let countries like China write the rules of the global economy.

We should write those rules, opening new markets to American products while setting high standards for protecting workers and preserving our environment.” The partners in the pact are U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, New-Zealand, Peru, Brunei and Vietnam. Conspicuously Asia’s biggest economy i.e., china is absent from the pact and is making efforts in organizing a rival trade pact. Robert J. Shapiro, chairman of Sonecon said, “We are in effect organizing our friends in a way which should reinforce their disinclination to ally more with China.” Now it’s up to congress to either accept it or reject. But whatever it might be, congress will take much time may be a year to reach a conclusion.

Image Courtesy: Billmoyers.com