The Emerging New Generation of Regional Trade Agreement: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and its Implications for the Multilateral Trading System

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has held many rounds of negotiations evolving around regional trade agreements- the purpose is to set out clear rules on regional, multilateral and free trade agreements within the WTO framework. During this period, the increase in the establishment of international enterprises has made countries dependent on one another’s products, as a result causing imbalance in tariff reductions. In order to prevent scandals and protect investors, the importance of regional trade agreement has become prominent since countries who sign often share similar culture, background and interest.
Is regional trade agreement (RTA) a stumbling block or building block to the multilateral trading system? This question has long been discussed among international writers and experts. In recent years, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) has become widely interpreted as the new generation of RTA, the importance of its implication to the multilateral trade system has caught the attention of both developed and developing countries. The initial participants in the TPP negotiations include ten APEC members from four different regions in the Asia Pacific: East Asia (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan); Oceania (Australia, New Zealand); Latin America (Chile, Peru); and North America (United States). The agreement include core issues traditionally included in trade agreements, including industrial goods, agriculture, and textiles as well as rules on intellectual property, technical barriers to trade, labor and environment. The TPP seeks to represent a new kind of trade agreement, one that serves as a platform for other nations to join in to and that addresses both tariff and non-tariff barriers to set a standard by which countries can conduct true, market-based trade. The TPP is perceived as a pathway towards developing a comprehensive FTAAP.
In Chapter 1, the thesis will review different stages of the development of regionalism, including regionalism from the 1950s to 1980s; regionalism since the 1990s and the new generation of regionalism. In Chapter 2, the initiation of TPP and the different stages of negotiations from various perspectives will be discussed. Key questions that will be covered include the factor that has prompted other states like the United States to join this agreement and the aspect that these member countries see in the TPP that gives them confidence for building a future together. In Chapter 3, the substantive issue on state-owned enterprises will be identified for more in-depth discussions. In Chapter 4, the thesis will focus on the new standards of TPP for intellectual property protection to promote an environment for innovation. These substantive issues are important because a) some comprehensive high standards will be set, b) they will become an example for developed countries to require other developing countries to follow high standards, c) they will create a better environment for the geographically widely covered TPP region. The thesis will also look into the implication of TPP to WTO from the wide geographical coverage. In Chapter 5, the thesis will discuss the stumbling block and building effects of TPP to the multilateral trading system. From the perspective that it is an exception to WTO, it can be seen as a stumbling block. From the perspective that there will be new and higher substantive standards, it can be seen as a building block because they might have positive affect to the future negotiation of WTO. The final section of this thesis is a summary and concluding remark in Chapter 6.