bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

CPTPP

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, or also known as TPP11) is a trade and investment agreement that was signed on 7 March 2018, after ten years of negotiation, between 11 Pacific Rim countries.

It began as an agreement between the four Pacific states of Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. The P4 (Pacific 4), as it was then known, was signed on 3 June 2005 and came into force on 1 January 2006 as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership.

In September 2008, the US Trade Representative announced that the US would seek entry into the P4 agreement. For Washington, the P4 offered a neoliberal agenda-friendly platform to expand US economic and strategic interests in Asia. A few months later, the governments of Australia, Peru and Vietnam announced their intention to join as well. Malaysia, Mexico, and Canada joined the negotiations in 2010, while Japan joined in 2013. The US quickly assumed leadership of the whole negotiating process of the now called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP or TPPA).

The TPP was signed in New Zealand on 4 February 2016. But on 23 January 2017, the new US President Donald Trump signed an executive order formally withdrawing the US from the trade pact. On 21 May 2017, on the margin of the APEC forum in Vietnam, the remaining members agreed to conclude talks on an alternative arrangement of the deal without the US by November.

The remaining 11 countries signed the newly-dubbed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on 8 March 2018.

Over the years, trade unions, advocacy groups, internet freedom activists, indigenous peoples, environmentalists, health professionals and elected officials criticised and protested against the treaty because it was designed to extend and concentrate corporate power at the expense of people’s rights.

For instance, by granting corporations and investors enormous privileges, the CPTPP helps to to further undermine conditions and wages for workers which have already been eroded by other trade and investment agreements.

Among other controversial clauses, the CPTPP parties agreed to enhance cooperation on certain activities related to agricultural biotechnology. The treaty requires member states to ratify the UPOV Convention of 1991, a kind of patent system for seeds. This will expand the market for privatised genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and hybrids, and threaten traditional seeds and knowledge.

The CPTPP’s chapter on regulatory coherence forces a signatory government to engage with “interested persons” when it intends to strengthen public policies. This means that companies from CPTPP countries are given the ability to provide input to national policy making in other member states. Governments also have to conduct regulatory impact assessments, justifying the “need for a regulation” and exploring “feasible alternatives” before proceeding.

Finally, the CPTPP’s sweeping investment chapter extends transnational companies ability to challenge public policies related to health, the environment (the treaty fails to mention climate change even once) or labour. It includes the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism that allows corporations to sue a state if a new regulation hampers their expected profits or investment potentials.

Mexico ratified the treaty on 28 June 2018, followed by Japan on 6 July, Singapore on 19 July, New Zealand on 25 October, Canada on 29 October, Australia on 31 October and Vietnam on 15 November. The Treaty went into force on 30 December 2018 among the members who have ratified it.

The text of the agreement is available here: https://www.bilaterals.org/?tpp-trans-pacific-partnership

last update: July 2021
Photo: Chile Mejor Sin TLC


Philippines’ TPP plea backed by precedent?
An Australian envoy has hinted at favorable reception for the Philippines’ request that any invitation to join the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal come with easier terms.
Protesters want details of free-trade agreements
Protesters will descend on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade today as they join calls for the New Zealand Government to release Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement details.
US negative in excluding rice in trans-Pacific FTA
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk indicated Wednesday in a congressional panel that the United States is unlikely to treat Japan’s rice as an exception in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
Maehara denies US pressure on Japan to join Pacific FTA talks
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara denied that the United States has been pressuring Japan to join a US-backed Pacific free trade agreement, saying some Americans have expressed a sense of caution on the possibility of Japan entering the talks.
USTR considering pharmaceutical pricing restrictions in TPP; refuses to follow May 10th agreement on IP-medicines issues
Public Citizen and Forum on Democracy and Trade met with US Trade Representative staff on January 3 to be briefed on the Obama administration’s negotiation of the TPP with respect to the planned IP chapter and the rumored chapter on pharmaceutical reimbursement programs.
Law suit prospects seen in TPP deal
A top United States trade official says New Zealand is ready to accept investor-state disputes in the nine-country TransPacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP).
US eyes transpacific trade deal by November APEC
The United States wants to "substantially complete" negotiations on a free trade agreement with eight other countries in the Asia Pacific region by the time President Barack Obama hosts a regional summit in November, the top US trade official said on Friday.
Keidanren lobbies Kaieda for TPP
The head of Japan’s largest business organization on Thursday urged Banri Kaieda to show leadership in moving the government toward negotiations on a Pacific free-trade agreement as the two met for the first time since Kaieda became trade minister.
TPPA: Challenges for Australian health and medicine policies
Of particular concern is that proposed TPPA multilateral investor–state dispute settlement procedures would allow US corporations (as well as those of other TPPA nations) to obtain damages against Australian governments through international arbitral proceedings if their investments are impeded by Australian public health and environment protection legislation.
Lobby group formed to force openness on free trade agreement
Following Professor Jane Kelsey’s plea for greater openness in negotiations around the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement (TPPA), a lobby consisting of trade unionists and others and calling itself TPP Watch has launched an online petition to force release of the interim text of the treaty as it is negotiated.

    Links


  • AFTINET TPP site
    Web page on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement maintained by the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
  • Expose the TPP
    The TPP would expand and lock in corporate power. At the heart of the TPP are new rights allowing thousands of multinational corporations to sue the U.S. government before a panel of three corporate lawyers who can award unlimited sums to be paid by America’s taxpayers. Only six of its 30 chapters actually cover “trade.”
  • Help free the TPP!
    The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement—which some have come to refer to as "NAFTA on steroids"—could ultimately affect the lives of billions of people worldwide. Neither the public, the press, nor even the US Congress knows the full extent of what’s in the text being negotiated—but corporate lobbyists know what it contains. Help us raise a reward for WikiLeaks should it publish the negotiating text of the TPP!
  • It’s our future
    Website on the implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement for New Zealand
  • Mexico Mejor Sin TPP
    Convergencia de Organizaciones Sociales y Ciudadanxs contra el Acuerdo Transpacífico de Cooperación Económica (TPP por sus siglas en inglés)
  • Moana Nui 2011
    Pua Mohala I Ka Po in collaboration with the International Forum on Globalization presents an international conference on Pacific transitions: "Moana Nui: Pacific peoples, lands and economies", November 9-11, 2011 Honolulu, Hawaii
  • Occupy TPPA
    The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a mega-treaty across nine or more countries. If the negotiations succeed they will put a straightjacket on the policies and laws our government can adopt for the next century. Corporations will gain massive new powers in Australia. Help us stop the TPPA!
  • Rock against the TPP
    Join us for a nationwide uprising and concert tour to stop the biggest corporate power grab in history: the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
  • Stop TPP Action
    Japanese alliance website