The countries participating in the TPP negotiations decided to publish the full text of the TPP Agreement even though the legal review procedure has not yet been completed.

The Department of Multilateral Trade Policy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) has just announced: According to international trade negotiation practices, an agreement will only be announced after the negotiating Parties have completed the legal review procedure. However, in response to the huge demand for information from people and businesses, the countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have decided to announce the full text of the TPP Agreement even though the legal review procedure has not yet been completed.

12 countries participating in TPP

The TPP countries have agreed to assign New Zealand (the country assigned to deposit the Agreement's documents) to publish the full text of the Agreement on the afternoon of November 5, 2015 (Hanoi time).

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced the full text of the TPP Agreement (English version) agreed upon by the TPP countries. Due to the ongoing legal review process, this announcement is not the final version. The final version may have some changes, but these are only technical edits and do not affect the content of the commitments.

In addition to the commitments in the Agreement, during the negotiation process, the TPP countries also reached a number of bilateral agreements. Since these agreements only relate to the Signatories, they will be announced separately by the Signatories. The Ministry of Industry and Trade announces herewith the bilateral agreements that Vietnam has agreed with a number of TPP countries. These agreements will take effect at the same time as the TPP Agreement.

Because the TPP countries are still conducting legal review procedures, the volume of documents that need to be translated is very large, so the Ministry of Industry and Trade and other ministries and branches cannot publish the Vietnamese translation of the TPP Agreement. To meet the requirements of the people and businesses, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will actively coordinate with other ministries and branches to quickly complete the translation work and publish the Vietnamese translation as soon as possible.

After the full text of the Agreement is published, the TPP countries will quickly complete the legal review process to prepare for the signing of the Agreement. Each country, according to its own laws, will set aside a certain amount of time for its people to study the Agreement before signing, ranging from 60 to 90 days. After this period, the TPP countries will officially sign it.

The official signing date of the Agreement has not yet been determined but is expected to be no later than the first quarter of 2016. After the official signing, the countries will carry out the procedures to ratify the Agreement in accordance with their respective national laws.

Full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) see details at:http://tpp.moit.gov.vn/./.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade