The Trans-Pacific Partnership
If you are into the affairs of the state, you should know that TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) will take place on February 22-25, 2014. The venue will be at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. TPP is a trade agreement between Singapore and other countries such as Vietnam, Australia, United States, Brunei Darussalam, Peru, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico and Malaysia.
Trade Ministers from the 12 countries will come together to discuss trade agreements. TPP will tackle trade issues like liberalization (of goods and services), labour, environment, intellectual property rights, sanitary and many more. TPP is also a corridor to FTAAP (Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific). The TPP member countries signify 1/3 of world trade and 40% of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
There were nineteen formal rounds since its establishment in March 2010. The first round was hosted by Australia and the next meeting will occur here in Singapore. What are the goals of TPP? TPP is specifically concerned about enhancing trade & investment, innovation, economic growth & development and creation & preservation of jobs.
The goal of TPP is noble but there are many issues and criticisms circulating around the organization. The organization is famous for its secrecy of the trade negotiations. With that, advocacy groups called to open the negotiations and agreements to the public. But the organization still stand by its “discretion and confidentiality” term.
No country lives on its own. It needs the alliance of other countries so it can perform well. Despite of the affluence of Singapore, it still needs other countries to optimize its resources and function perfectly. Businessmen are surely interested in the drafts. A little transparency will mean a lot. Let us see where this leads.
