Opening up the Pacific

MOST Americans have not heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free-trade area of countries dotted around the Pacific Ocean. They will soon. This weekend it has suddenly emerged as the most promising trade liberalisation initiative since the Doha round of world-trade talks stalled in 2008. On November 11th, Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, announced its intention to join America and eight other countries in negotiating what its advocates hope will emerge as the new gold standard for free trade in the world’s most dynamic economic zone. Reuters reports that if the ten-country deal is concluded, it will cover a market 40% bigger than the European Union. The news has electrified the summit of Asia-Pacific Exporting Countries (APEC) convening in Honolulu this weekend. President Barack Obama, who acts as the meeting’s host, hopes the TPP will be the cornerstone of an APEC-wide free-trade area. With the euro zone in shambles, that would further shift the world’s centre of economic gravity from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.


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