Asia Free Trade Area: TPP Negotiations Are Approaching "Final Stage"

On Friday, the US Senate approved the presidential trade promotion proposal to give Obama TPP trade agreement authorization.

Andres Rebolledo, Deputy Minister of Chile's trade department, said that the TPP negotiations have entered the "final stage".

As the Chilean representative of the TPP negotiations, Rebolledo told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday that the US Senate's adoption of the presidential trade promotion initiative (TPA) means that the TPP agreement (Trans-Pacific Partnership) has made significant progress.

After the Senate passes the TPA, the house of representatives will also vote. Once it is approved again, Obama will have the right to propose to Congress.

Congress has the power to approve or veto, but can not modify the contents of the agreement.

President Obama regarded this "authorization" as a "top priority" in his remaining term, and made it clear that the adoption of this "authorization" is crucial to the TPP negotiation process.

Fred Bergsten, former director of the Pedersen Institute for economic research in Washington think tank, believes that China has always believed that TPP will pose a threat to China's trade and security.

He said: "China has always been the strongest opponent of TPP, and China regards TPP as a tool for the United States to contain China, isolate China and restrict China.

If TPP is finally negotiated, it will allow China to export every year.

Up to 100 billion dollars. "

Obama warned that if

Failure, the US position as a global trade referee will be weakened by China.

After being excluded from the TPP negotiations, China joined another Asian trade agreement negotiations, namely, the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) with 16 countries participating. It is expected that the agreement will be reached this year.

China is also promoting negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) to highlight its rising international status.

but

The effort has been resisted by the United States.

Wang Shouwen, Assistant Minister of Commerce of China, said in a high-level forum on China's development in March 21st that the new round of negotiations launched by TPP members in March this year "did not invite China to participate", but "China is closely following the progress of the TPP negotiations".

Rebolledo said that many TPP participating countries believe that the determination and completeness of the agreement will be the key to the success of the negotiations.

"Participating countries are currently discussing TPP at a technical level. Only when the final political factors are determined can new progress be made."

The TPP agreement is dominated by the United States.

The TPP negotiations consist of two parts: first, the rules of intellectual property protection and all the 12 negotiating parties together; two, the bilateral negotiations such as tariff reduction for certain goods.

In the 12 negotiating countries, the United States and Japan have a huge total economy, and all participating countries account for 40% of the global economy.