IGI | Inside Global Issues
Working Paper No. 201621
December 15, 2016
Unveiling the Trans-Pacific Partnership:
An Analysis of the Full Text
Dong Yan, Su Qingyi
Abstract：This article systematically analyzes the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from the perspectives of breadth, depth and new concepts. First, by comparing it to free trade agreements (FTAs) that the United States has signed with economies in the Asia-Pacific region and FTAs other economies have signed in the region, it assesses the extension of the TPP text’s chapters. Second, it classifies those chapters into four categories: deepening traditional topics, deeper integration, new topics and other institutional topics. Third, the article summarizes four new concepts based on an analysis of the text: to generalize the U.S. idea of international trade and investment rules, to respond to the demand for change in global value chains on global trade governance, to consider the interests of multinational corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises, and to prioritize U.S. interests while taking into account other members’ interests. Finally, the article analyzes the comprehensive impact of TPP rules on China.
Key words: Trans-Pacific Partnership; free trade agreement; trade rules; Asia-Pacific; United States; China; global value chains
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