On Tuesday 23 January, the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, welcomed the announced conclusion, in Chile in March this year, of a resurrected Transpacific Partnership agreement (TTP), between eleven of the twelve countries of the Pacific Ocean region - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam - which concluded the TPP in October 2015 with the United States, before President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from it upon taking up office in January 2017.
“Free, rules-based, transparent trade is good for the world”, Malmström tweeted.
On Tuesday, Canada agreed to join the ten other countries to breathe new life into the TPP which, renamed 'global and progressive transpacific partnership agreement', retains the commitments of the original treaty, with the exception of a number of provisions that have been suspended temporarily and other matters still to be finalised.
The TPP aims to remove 98% of tariff barriers and open up the public procurement markets further. It also sets out common standards for e-commerce and financial services and includes provisions on compliance with employment law as defined by the ILO. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)