Finally, after 5 years of negotiations, 12 countries have signed the TPP agreement – the Trans Pacific Partnership. It is a free trade agreement between these countries which border on the Pacific Ocean. One of the most important countries for our products is the USA but even more important is that the population of these 11 countries totals 800 million people. This is 40% of the world’s trade. We are a trading country and having free access to these countries will make it easier to sell our products. It will help our economy.
Our government still has one month in which to agree to this. They cannot change anything.
Some of the benefits include removing tariffs from our meat, fruit and wine when we export to these countries. At the moment, many countries add a tariff to protect their own products. Japan, for instance, adds 38.5% tariff to imported beef. Over the next 15 years, this will reduce to only 9%. For other products, the tariffs will be removed as soon as the TPPA is signed. This will probably take 2 years for all countries to sign.
Dairy farmers are disappointed though. They wanted free access to American and Canadian markets. This will not happen but there is a quota for our dairy products to these countries in the agreement.
There are some other negative conditions. Books and music will cost more, as copyright will be extended from 50 years to 70 years. It is possible medicines will be more expensive, but we don’t really know all the details yet. Another matter which worries many people is that we cannot stop foreigners from buying our property.
Tim Groser, Minister of Trade, was our negotiator and he is pleased with the final agreement.
Listen to TPP Protests to hear more about the TPP.
Vocabulary
• negotiation (n) – discussion to reach an agreement; negotiator – the person who negotiates
• border (v, n) – be on the edge of the Pacific Ocean
• benefit (n) – things that help us, are good for us
• quota (n) – a share, a percentage
• tariff (n) – import tax
• copyright (n) – ownership of books or music. You have to pay to copy their books or music
• extend (v) – make bigger