Chile signs TPP trade deal with US, 10 other Pacific-Rim nations.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
In a show of optimism that contrasts sharply with mounting resistance to the initiative back home, Chile's top diplomat visited Auckland, New Zealand, last week to sign the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a wide-reaching commercial accord that promises--provided it can be ratified in the 12 participating countries--to create the world's largest trading bloc.
"This is a balanced agreement that will bring more progress, more employment," Foreign Affairs Minister Heraldo Munoz told reporters present at the Feb. 4 signing ceremony. "We've protected our interests," he added. "In some cases, we did so in coordination with other countries that opposed some of the items that were included [in the deal] two or three years ago and were absolutely unacceptable for Chile and other countries."
The other nations involved in the trade pact are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, and host New Zealand. Together the TPP members represent nearly 800 million people, or 11% of the world's population, and have a combined nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately US$27.6 trillion, equivalent to more than 35% of the total global output, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The two dominant players in the TPP are the US, and to a less degree, Japan, the world's number one and number three economies respectively, with a combined GDP of approximately US$22 trillion--four times what the other 10 members of the trade bloc produce all together. The TPP does not include China, whose US$11.4-trillion GDP is second only to the US. Analysts say the omission is by design, calling the TPP a "counterweight" to China's economic might and growing influence abroad, including in Latin America (NotiSur, Jan. 23, 2015). Chile, with an annual GDP of US$258 billion, ranks 41st on the IMF list, just behind Finland and ahead of Ireland.
'We're happy to be part of this'
The Auckland gathering took place exactly four months after Chile and the other TPP parties concluded what had been more than five years of hush-hush negotiations. The result of those talks is a 6,000-page, 30-chapter behemoth of a deal that seeks to boost trade among the Pacific Rim nations by lowering tariffs and standardizing commercial practices. The TPP also establishes uniform employment and environmental guidelines as a way to crack down, for example, on child labor, workplace discrimination, illegal logging and...
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