Barack Obama has said the US wants to sign what he described as a next-generation trade agreement with nine Asia-Pacific nations by the end of 2012.
The US president, attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Hawaii, said the Trans-Pacific Partnership would go beyond the scope of normal trade deals, to become a “model”, or a “seed”, for a broader set of agreements.
The TPP is meant to deal with non-tariff barrier issues, including government procurement, the conduct of state-owned companies, regulatory convergence and protection of intellectual property. Japan, which wishes to join the TPP but faces stiff opposition from its farmers, sees the pact as a way of binding the US more tightly into the Asian trading system as a balance to China. But the declaration signed this weekend by the nine current members of the TPP – Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam – gave a broad outline rather than specific details.