Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 12 • Number 40 • 26th November 2008
Trans-Pacific Free Trade Pact Set to Expand
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A two-year-old regional free trade pact, known as the P4, between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore is set to be enlarged to span seven countries.
Australia and Peru have joined the US, which requested involvement in the trade deal in September, in committing to negotiations to join what has been christened the Trans-Pacific Strategic and Economic Partnership, or TransPac.
The decision was announced by Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley after a meeting of foreign and trade ministers at a forum of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, in Peru last week.
Negotiations for the expanded free trade region are scheduled to commence in March 2009. Other APEC members have until then to decide whether they would like to be included in negotiations. Vietnam has expressed interest in joining the trade arrangement, but has not yet committed to the idea.
The addition of more countries is “a practical response to the economic turmoil that we are trying to get through,” New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said, reported Bloomberg.
And proponents believe that the trade pact has the potential to evolve into a broader deal that covers the entire region.
“The P4 agreement came into force in 2006 as a pathway to free trade across the Asia Pacific. This agreement could lay the foundation for the long term goal of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP),” Australian trade minister Simon Crean said in a statement.
Although current US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has expressed confidence that negotiations for this deal will be followed through by the new Obama administration, Obama transition officials have not commented on the topic.
ICTSD; “Bush pushes trans-pacific free trade,” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 24 November 2008; “Regional free trade pact could grow,” NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 22 November 2008; “Australia, Peru to start talks to join four-nation trade pact,” BLOOMBERG, 20 November 2008.
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