What is Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Agreement? Why do you need to know about it?

Some of you might have heard about Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),  the TPP is a trade agreement between several Pacific Rim countries concerning a variety of matters of economic policy. Among other things, the TPP will seek to lower trade barriers such as tariffs, establish a common framework for intellectual property, enforce standards for labor law and environmental law, and establish an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.The stated goal of the agreement is to “enhance trade and investment among the TPP partner countries, to promote innovation, economic growth and development, and to support the creation and retention of jobs.” TPP is considered by the United States government as the companion agreement to TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), a broadly similar agreement between the United States and the European Union.

On October 5,2015,  The U.S, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations reached its final agreement. The agreement will still have to go to Congress where there will be months of scrutiny before they decide to approve or reject it. If it is approved, it will eliminate most duties from all of the nations listed below. We are going to a conference next week where this topic will be discussed by CBP and will send out an update when we get back. The TPP Most likely will not affect anti-dumping duties as dumping is a completely separate issue.

The 12 countries that are involved with the TPP trade agreement are:

Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, U.S, Vietnam, Chile,Brunei, Singapore, New Zealand.

Thank you,

Flegenheimer Team

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Strategic-Importance-of-TPP-Fact-Sheet.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-is-reached.html?_r=0