The Politics of Trade. Trans-Pacific Partnership. Term Paper

Trans-Pacific Partnership
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Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is one of the largest trade agreements whose role was to promote free trade to its member states following its ratification (Chaisse, Gao, & Lo, 2017). The 12 states under the agreement that was signed in 2016 comprise of Vietnam, Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, Canada, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Japan, and the United States (Garavaglia, 2016). The TPP treaty has essential features such as slashing tariffs, fostering close economic relationships, and promoting trade for sustained growth. Therefore, the expectation is that the agreement is to be the next substantial regional treaty in the Asia Pacific after the 1992’s conclusion of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (Petri, Plummer & Zhai, 2012). This paper seeks to review the politics of the trade agreements, the imports and TPP features and the negotiations, as it gauges those opposed to it and the strong supporters of the partnership.
While TPP was signed on February 4, 2016, the agreement was not approved according to the requirement of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In the political sense, during the same year, the trade agreement did not take effect. After the United State withdrew their signature from the agreement, the treaty could not go ahead. The reason for this was that the US was wary of the impact this deal would have on the safety, health, and the general welfare of its citizens (Garavaglia, 2016). Therefore, the other remaining nations decided to strike a new deal that was analogous to the TPP, known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPATPP). According to Petri, Plummer, and Zhai (2012), there has been a significant shift in the deals from the global and regional to bilateral understanding. The agreement mainly aimed at deepening trade and economic ties among the member states through the creation of one large market like the European Union (EU) trading block. If the member states of the trade deal ratify it, the TPP could be the largest single market more significant than the EU. According to the contextual model on the effects of TPP, the U.S. has been impacted negatively regarding the labor market in terms of wages and the rate of employment. This has led to income inequality among the United States citizens (The United States International Trade Commission, 2016).
The TPP consist of all the negative factors that are exempted in the implementation of free trade. For instance, the treaty consists of new regulations in trading for overseas investors, online commerce, comprehensive protection of intellectual properties, and neutralization of state-owned business. The treaty gives limited authority to governments to legislate exceptions to laws touching on copyright protection. Additionally, the trade deal has the most robust environmental regulations, protection, and sustainability strategies of the member countries. Furthermore, TPP stipulates that any member state should avoid any form of corruption matters and involve the private sector in fighting against corruption leading to better governance. Moreover, the treaty prohibits any discrimination...