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CRS Says Vietnam's Participation, Lack of Asian Interest May Be Problems for TPP

The Congressional Research Service has issued a report (R40502) on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the evolving economic and strategic architectures of Asia.

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One part of this evolving architecture is the TPP, a free trade agreement that includes nations on both sides of the Pacific. The existing TPP, which originally came into effect in 2006, consists of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore. The U.S, Australia, Peru, and Vietnam have committed themselves to joining and expanding this group. The third round of discussions among the eight countries took place in October 2010 and saw the formal inclusion of Malaysia in the negotiations.

U.S. participation in the TPP involves the negotiation of FTAs with New Zealand, Brunei, Malaysia, and potentially, Vietnam, as the U.S. already has FTAs in force with Chile, Singapore, Australia, and Peru.

According to CRS, the possible inclusion of Vietnam has proven controversial from the standpoint of certain domestic industry groups, such as textiles and apparel, as well as those concerned with labor, human rights and intellectual property issues. In addition, it notes that while Asia is viewed as being of vital importance to U.S. trade and security interests, within Asia there appears to be more interest in intra-regional economic activity such as through ASEAN; ASEAN plus three (China, Japan, Korea); and ASEAN plus six (also known as the East Asia Summit), which includes China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand.