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Obama launches TPP in
Asia push
A BUSY YEAR: The US president said members of
the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which began as a pact between four nations in
2005, hope to be working on the text in a year
AFP, Honolulu
US President Barack Obama announced on Saturday the framework for a vast
free-trade agreement spanning the Pacific as he sought a new era of US
leadership in a fast-growing region.
¡§Together we can boost exports and create more goods available for our
consumers, create new jobs, compete, win in the markets of the future,¡¨ Obama
said, framing the Asia-Pacific as the key to restoring global economic growth.
Leaders from nearly 20 nations, including China and Japan, gathered for weekend
meetings in Hawaii, where sunbathers and surfers had to skirt beach barricades
and traffic snarls frustrated the famously laid-back locals.
Obama said nine countries had reached a ¡§broad outline¡¨ on a free-trade pact
called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and hoped by next year to be working
on the legal text of a full agreement.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda gave a major boost ahead of the summit as
his nation became the 10th member of the TPP, meaning that it will cover more
than one-third of the global economy and could develop into the world¡¦s biggest
free-trade zone, dwarfing the EU.
¡§I have been extremely impressed already with the boldness of his vision,¡¨ Obama
said after meeting Noda ahead of yesterday¡¦s formal opening of the APEC forum.
Obama has set a goal of doubling exports to create badly needed jobs at home,
but he also hopes that the TPP will serve as a strategic linchpin as the US
winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and refocuses on Asia.
Pressing the US case for the TPP, Obama said that the emerging -agreement would
be a 21st-century deal that ensures high environmental and labor standards and
addresses new barriers other than tariffs.
¡§I¡¦m confident we can get this done,¡¨ he said.
The TPP was signed in 2005 as an obscure agreement among Brunei, Chile, New
Zealand and Singapore. Obama suddenly turned it into the cornerstone of the US¡¦
free-trade drive, with Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, the US and Vietnam now
also in the talks.
In a joint statement, leaders of TPP nations said they shared a ¡§strong
interest¡¨ in expanding their membership.
The major outlier of the TPP is China, the world¡¦s second-largest economy. Obama,
shortly before holding talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao (JÀAÀÜ), warned that
Beijing must ¡§play by the rules¡¨ in international trade and intellectual
property protection.
The US has not explicitly ruled out China¡¦s entrance into the TPP, but US
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has linked the trade agreement to
fundamental values, including openness and labor standards.
¡§It¡¦s very important for China to join eventually, and China has left that
possibility open,¡¨ said Peter Petri, an expert from the East-West Center
thinktank.
¡§There are now differences between the US and China on some provisions, for
example, rules about trade by state-owned enterprises. But it¡¦s best to think of
this not as breaking up the region, but as a move in a ¡¥bargaining game¡¦ about
what rules will govern cooperation,¡¨ Petri said.
Despite the US¡¦ optimism about the TPP, Obama said that there would be
¡§difficulties¡¨ and ¡§sensitivities¡¨ among member countries. Most experts believe
it will take years before a concrete agreement can come to fruition.
The details of the trade agreement remain vague and opposition has already built
in several countries. Some farm groups in Japan and the US have voiced alarm
that they would be swamped by global competition.
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