Business Organisations Promote TPP

Business Organisations Promote TPP On Margins Of APEC Summit

Three business organisations - the NZ US Council, Singapore Business Federation and the US APEC Business Coalition - have joined forces in the margins of this week’s APEC Leaders’ Week and organised a well-attended seminar to promote the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations.

“Our three organisations strongly support an ambitious outcome from the TPP negotiations, one that can provide a new framework for expanding trade and investment and be a means by which the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) can be brought into being” said Stephen Jacobi, Executive Director of the NZ US Council.

The seminar took place in Yokohama on November 11. Entitled “Walking the Talk – TPP as a pathway to the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific”, the seminar was attended by over 80 business leaders and officials attending the APEC meetings.

“We see a major opportunity for TPP to reduce business costs and increase the ease of doing business in the region. Unlocking new opportunities and making business more profitable is the key to sustainable economic growth and accelerating the pace of economic recovery both for the region and the world as a whole”, said Mr Teng Theng Dar, Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Business Federation.

The seminar was chaired by Professor Shujiro Urata, of Waseda University, and featured addresses by the Trade Ministers of New Zealand and Singapore and the US Deputy Trade Representative, as well as discussions among business leaders on new business issues that the organisers believe should be addressed in TPP.

“We welcome today’s discussion on including horizontal issues such regulatory coherence and supply chain management in the TPP negotiations. A high quality TPP agreement will bring positive improvements to the behind the border issues affecting the way business is being done in the region today”, said Catherine Mellor, Associate Director, Southeast Asia, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership is an existing free trade agreement linking Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. They have been joined by Australia, Peru, the United States and Viet Nam in an initiative to expand the membership and coverage of the agreement. Malaysia was confirmed in Yokohama as the ninth negotiating party and other APEC member economies are showing interest.

“We welcome new partners who can ascribe to the concept of an ambitious outcome from the negotiations. In the year we mark the first deadline for APEC’s Bogor goals for free trade and investment between APEC’s industrialised economies, the time has surely come for a high quality trade agreement linking both sides of the Pacific” concluded Mr Jacobi.

The fourth round of negotiations for an expanded TPP will be held in Auckland, New Zealand, during the week of 6 December.

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