Signing of 'TPP without the US' agreement today

With the efforts of Japan, Mexico and the remaining member countries, the parties completed the negotiation process and reached a common agreement.After the US announced its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), there were many doubts that the TPP would collapse completely.

Sources from the Ministry of Industry and Trade said the official signing ceremony of CPTPP will take place at around 3-4pm on March 8 in Santiago, Chile (local time).

According to Mr. Luong Hoang Thai, Director of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), without the US, CPTPP basically inherits the entire content of the TPP agreement and allows member countries to postpone a few obligations to ensure balance in the new context. Among the postponed obligations, the countries agreed to let Vietnam exempt from implementing a number of important commitments related to intellectual property, investment, government procurement, financial services, telecommunications, etc.

* What is the difference between CPTPP and TPP?

The CPTPP was signed in Chile in the context of US President Donald Trump's comments suggesting the possibility of renegotiating the agreement. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the US has had high-level discussions about rejoining the CPTPP. Thus, the CPTPP will be considered by Mr. Trump, although he still values ​​bilateral trade agreements.

Without the US participation, the CPTPP is still considered a high-standard free trade agreement (FTA).This Agreement covers traditional areas such as tariff reduction on goods, opening of service markets, intellectual property, technical barriers to trade..., and addresses new, non-traditional issues such as labor, environment, government procurement.incubation, state-owned enterprise.

According to Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo, CPTPP will help create more jobs in Australia in all areas from agriculture, manufacturing, mining to services. Or New Zealand believes the new agreement will boost its GDP by 0.3%-1%, equivalent to 1.2 billion USD and 4 billion USD a year...

However, Mr. Luong Hoang Thai also admitted that, in the context of no longer having US participation, the scale of economic cooperationThe economic benefits of the CPTPP agreement are no longer as good as the previous TPP, so the economic benefits it brings to member countries are no longer as great as before. However, "TPP without the US" still opens up a new playing field with a market size accounting for about 13.5% of global GDP and covering a market of nearly 500 million people.

After being signed today, CPTPP will come into effect if at least 6 member countriesFor Vietnam, the Government will submit to the National Assembly for consideration, approval and decision on implementation according to the roadmap agreed upon by the participating countries.

The original TPP agreement (with the US) was seen as a landmark initiative for setting standards for trade and investment regulations, as China emerged as a regional power.

Mr. Minh