Key features you should know…
This is a big step of trade liberalization, making a breakthrough of negotiations of new FTAs generation. Result is a high-standard, ambitious, comprehensive, and balanced agreement that will promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections. With its new and high standards for trade and investment in the Asia Pacific, this is an important step toward members’ ultimate goal of open trade and regional integration across the region.
Five defining features make the Trans-Pacific Partnership a landmark 21st-century agreement, setting a new standard for global trade while taking up next-generation issues. These features include:
Comprehensive market access. The TPP eliminates or reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers across substantially all trade in goods and services and covers the full spectrum of trade, including goods and services trade and investment, so as to create new opportunities and benefits for our businesses, workers, and consumers.
Regional approach to commitments. The TPP facilitates the development of production and supply chains, and seamless trade, enhancing efficiency and supporting our goal of creating and supporting jobs, raising living standards, enhancing conservation efforts, and facilitating cross-border integration, as well as opening domestic markets.
Addressing new trade challenges. The TPP promotes innovation, productivity, and competitiveness by addressing new issues, including the development of the digital economy, and the role of state-owned enterprises in the global economy.
Inclusive trade. The TPP includes new elements that seek to ensure that economies at all levels of development and businesses of all sizes can benefit from trade. It includes commitments to help small- and medium-sized businesses understand the Agreement, take advantage of its opportunities, and bring their unique challenges to the attention of the TPP governments. It also includes specific commitments on development and trade capacity building, to ensure that all Parties are able to meet the commitments in the Agreement and take full advantage of its benefits.
Platform for regional integration. The TPP is intended as a platform for regional economic integration and designed to include additional economies across the Asia-Pacific region.
…With a special scope due to a diverse group of countries of development levels
The TPP includes 30 chapters covering trade and trade-related issues, beginning with trade in goods and continuing through customs and trade facilitation; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; technical barriers to trade; trade remedies; investment; services; electronic commerce; government procurement; intellectual property; labour; environment; ‘horizontal’ chapters meant to ensure that TPP fulfils its potential for development, competitiveness, and inclusiveness; dispute settlement, exceptions, and institutional provisions.
In addition to updating traditional approaches to issues covered by previous free trade agreements (FTAs), the TPP incorporates new and emerging trade issues and cross-cutting issues. These include issues related to the Internet and the digital economy, the participation of state-owned enterprises in international trade and investment, the ability of small businesses to take advantage of trade agreements, and other topics.
TPP unites a diverse group of countries - diverse by geography, language and history, size, and levels of development. All TPP countries recognize that diversity is a unique asset, but also one which requires close cooperation, capacity-building for the lesser-developed TPP countries, and in some cases special transitional periods and mechanisms which offer some TPP partners additional time, where warranted, to develop capacity to implement new obligations.
TPP is expected to bring chances for Vietnam
TPP plays an important role to Vietnam.TPP member nations represent about 40% of global GDP and 30% of global trade. The deal will open up trading avenues for key export products of Vietnam such as textile, garment, footwear, and seafood in broader market such as the U.S., Japan, and Canada due to their ultra low import tariffs.
According to Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade, TPP will enhance Vietnam's GDP by $23.5 billion in 2020 and $33.5 billion in 2025. In addition, it will boost the country's exports by $68 billion in 2025. According to the statistics of GSO, the export-import value of Vietnam to TPP members reached 89 billion US Dollar in 2014, in which export reached 57 billion US Dollar, accounting for nearly 40% of total export of Vietnam. Vietnam is having a 25 billion US Dollar trade surplus with TPP countries, mostly the United States.
TPP is expected to bring chances for Vietnam to facilitate export in advantageous areas of Vietnam such as textile, footwear, fishery, electrics and tropical agricultural products. TPP is also the chance for Vietnam to take part in the regional and global supply chain.
But the benefits of the TPP for Vietnam are not without challenges
The biggest challenge is the pressure of competition, especially in the livestock industry. Vietnam has many strengths in the agricultural sector, but its competitiveness is not really high in some industries, including animal husbandry. It is expected to be the most affected sector when the TPP commitments take effect. Other challenges include origin, technical barriers to trade; intellectual property; labour and environment issues.
