Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership
Encyclopedia
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), also known as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, is a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region; specifically, Article 1.1.3 notes: “The Parties seek to support the wider liberalisation process in APEC consistent with its goals of free and open trade and investment.” The original agreement between the countries of Brunei
, Chile
, New Zealand
and Singapore
was signed on June 3, 2005, and entered into force on May 28, 2006. Six additional countries – Australia
, Malaysia, Peru
, Japan
, United States
, and Vietnam
– are negotiating to join the group. On the last day of the 2010 APEC summit
, November 14, leaders of the nine negotiating countries endorsed the proposal advanced by United States President Barack Obama
that set a target for settlement of negotiations by the next APEC summit in November 2011
. On the 11th November 2011 the Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, announced negotiations to join.
The TPP was previously known as the Pacific Three Closer Economic Partnership (P3-CEP), its negotiations launched on the sidelines of the 2002 APEC
Leaders' Meeting in Los Cabos
, Mexico
, by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos
and Prime Ministers Goh Chok Tong
of Singapore and Helen Clark
of New Zealand. Brunei first took part as a full negotiating party in the fifth round of talks in April 2005, after which the trade bloc became known as the Pacific-4 (P4).
Although all original and negotiating parties are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC), the TPP is not an APEC initiative. However, it is considered as a pathfinder for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), an APEC initiative. TPP negotiations have occurred on the sidelines of APEC summits since 2002.
The objective of the original agreement was to eliminate 90 percent of all tariff
s between member countries by January 1, 2006, and reduce all trade tariffs to zero by the year 2015. It is a comprehensive agreement covering all the main pillars of a free trade agreement, including trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures
, technical barriers to trade, trade in services, intellectual property, government procurement and competition policy.
The negotiations initially included just three countries (Chile, New Zealand and Singapore), but Brunei subsequently joined the agreement. The original TPP agreement contains an accession clause and affirms the members' "commitment to encourage the accession to this Agreement by other economies."
In February 2008 the United States agreed to enter into talks with the P4 members regarding liberalization of trade in financial services. Then, on September 22, 2008, U.S. Trade Representative
Susan C. Schwab
announced that the United States would begin negotiations with the P4 countries to join the TPP, with the first round of talks scheduled for early 2009. Commenting on the announcement, New Zealand Prime Minister
Helen Clark
stated, "I think the value to New Zealand of the United States coming into a transpacific agreement as a partner would be of the same value as we would hope to get from a bilateral FTA. . . It's very, very big news."
In November 2008, Australia
, Vietnam
, and Peru
announced that they would also be joining the P4 trade bloc. In October 2010, Malaysia announced that it had also joined the TPP negotiations. Canada
, Japan
, the Philippines
, South Korea
, and Taiwan
have also expressed interest in TPP membership.
in January 2009, the anticipated March 2009 negotiations were postponed. However, in his first trip to Asia in November 2009, President Obama reaffirmed the United States' commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and on December 14, 2009, new U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk
notified Congress that President Obama planned to enter TPP negotiations "with the objective of shaping a high-standard, broad-based regional pact".
Since that time, six formal rounds of TPP negotiations have been held. The first round took place March 15–19, 2010, in Melbourne, Australia, the second round occurred June 14-18 in San Francisco, USA, a third round took place October 5–8, 2010, in Brunei, a fourth round was held December 6–10, 2010, in Auckland, New Zealand, the fifth round was from 14th-18th February in Santiago, Chile, while the sixth round was in Singapore from the 24th March to the 1st of April 2011.
On the 11th November 2011, Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda
, announced Japanese negotiations to join the treaty.
is an observer in the TPP talks but has not committed to join, purportedly because the United States and New Zealand have specifically blocked it, supposedly due to concerns over Canadian agricultural policy, specifically on dairy. Several pro-business and internationalist Canadian media outlets have raised concerns about this as a missed opportunity. In a feature in the Financial Post
former Canadian trade negotiator Peter Clark
claimed that the Harper government had been strategically out maneuvered by the Obama administration, Wendy Dobson and Diana Kuzmanovic for The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
argued for the economic necessity of the TPP for Canada. Embassy
warned that Canada's position in APEC could be compromised by being excluded from both the US-oriented TPP and the proposed China-oriented ASEAN +3 trade agreement.
Japan
is regarded as a potential future member but it would have to open its agricultural market in a way it refused to do in previous trade negotiations such as the Doha round
. Japan joined as an observer in the TPP discussions that took place November 13–14, 2010, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Yokohama
.
South Korea
was officially requested to join the TPP negotiating rounds by the United States
after the successful settlement of the US-South Korea FTA. The country already has bilateral trade agreements with other TPP countries, thus making any future multilateral TPP negotiation less complicated.
At a public forum on 6 July 2011, legal experts in New Zealand
presented their concerns that the agreement could undermine law regarding Māori culture
, genetic modification, copyright, and remove the subsidised medicine New Zealanders have access to through Pharmac.
Ken Akamatsu
, creator of Love Hina
and Mahou Sensei Negima!, expressed concern the agreement could decimate the derivative dōjinshi
(self-published) works prevalent in Japan. Akamatsu argues that the TPP "would destroy derivative dōjinshi. And as a result, the power of the entire manga
industry would also diminish." Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer and a Nihon University
professor, expressed concerns that the TPP could allow companies to restrict or stop import
s and export
s of intellectual property, such as licensed merchandise. For example, IP holders could restrict or stop importers from shipping merchandise such as DVD's and other related goods related to an anime
or manga
property into one country to protect local distribution of licensed merchandise already in the country via local licensors. At a NicoNico live seminar titled How Would TPP Change the Net and Copyrights? An In-Depth Examination: From Extending Copyright Terms to Changing the Law to Allow Unilateral Enforcement and Statutory Damages, artist Kazuhiko Hachiya warned that cosplay
could also fall under the TPP, and such an agreement could give law enforcement officials broad interpretive authority in dictating how people could dress up. Critics also have derided the agreement could also harm Japanese culture, where some segments have developed through parody
works.
Brunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
was signed on June 3, 2005, and entered into force on May 28, 2006. Six additional countries – Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Malaysia, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
– are negotiating to join the group. On the last day of the 2010 APEC summit
APEC Japan 2010
APEC Japan 2010 was a series of meetings of the 21 member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation held around Japan in 2010. It culminated in the 18th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held in Yokohama, Japan from November 13–14, 2010...
, November 14, leaders of the nine negotiating countries endorsed the proposal advanced by United States President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
that set a target for settlement of negotiations by the next APEC summit in November 2011
APEC United States 2011
APEC United States 2011 was a series of meetings of the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member economies held around the United States in 2011. It culminated in the 19th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii from November 12–13, 2011. The...
. On the 11th November 2011 the Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, announced negotiations to join.
The TPP was previously known as the Pacific Three Closer Economic Partnership (P3-CEP), its negotiations launched on the sidelines of the 2002 APEC
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region...
Leaders' Meeting in Los Cabos
Los Cabos
Los Cabos is a municipality located at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, in the state of Baja California Sur. It encompasses the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo , as well as the Resort Corridor that lies between the two...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos
Ricardo Lagos
Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...
and Prime Ministers Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong is the Senior Minister of Singapore and the chairman of the central bank of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He also served as the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 28 November 1990 to 12 August 2004, succeeding Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime...
of Singapore and Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
of New Zealand. Brunei first took part as a full negotiating party in the fifth round of talks in April 2005, after which the trade bloc became known as the Pacific-4 (P4).
Although all original and negotiating parties are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region...
(APEC), the TPP is not an APEC initiative. However, it is considered as a pathfinder for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), an APEC initiative. TPP negotiations have occurred on the sidelines of APEC summits since 2002.
The objective of the original agreement was to eliminate 90 percent of all tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
s between member countries by January 1, 2006, and reduce all trade tariffs to zero by the year 2015. It is a comprehensive agreement covering all the main pillars of a free trade agreement, including trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures
Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures - also known as the SPS Agreement is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization...
, technical barriers to trade, trade in services, intellectual property, government procurement and competition policy.
Membership and accession
In February 2008 the United States agreed to enter into talks with the P4 members regarding liberalization of trade in financial services. Then, on September 22, 2008, U.S. Trade Representative
Office of the United States Trade Representative
The Office of the United States Trade Representative is the United States government agency responsible for developing and recommending United States trade policy to the president of the United States, conducting trade negotiations at bilateral and multilateral levels, and coordinating trade...
Susan C. Schwab
Susan Schwab
Susan C. Schwab is an American politician, who served as United States Trade Representative from June, 2006 to January, 2009....
announced that the United States would begin negotiations with the P4 countries to join the TPP, with the first round of talks scheduled for early 2009. Commenting on the announcement, New Zealand Prime Minister
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
stated, "I think the value to New Zealand of the United States coming into a transpacific agreement as a partner would be of the same value as we would hope to get from a bilateral FTA. . . It's very, very big news."
In November 2008, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
announced that they would also be joining the P4 trade bloc. In October 2010, Malaysia announced that it had also joined the TPP negotiations. Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
have also expressed interest in TPP membership.
Members
| Country | Membership | Date of Accession/Declaration of Intention |
|---|---|---|
 Australia |
Negotiating | 20 November 2008 |
 Brunei |
Original Signatory | 28 May 2006 |
 Chile |
Original Signatory | 28 May 2006 |
 Japan |
Negotiating | 11 November 2011 |
 Malaysia |
Negotiating | October 2010 |
 New Zealand |
Original Signatory | 28 May 2006 |
 Peru |
Negotiating | November 2008 |
 Singapore |
Original Signatory | 28 May 2006 |
 United States |
Negotiating | February 2008 |
 Vietnam |
Negotiating | November 2008 |
Negotiations
After the inauguration of Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
in January 2009, the anticipated March 2009 negotiations were postponed. However, in his first trip to Asia in November 2009, President Obama reaffirmed the United States' commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and on December 14, 2009, new U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk
Ron Kirk
Ronald "Ron" Kirk is the 16th United States Trade Representative, serving in the Obama administration. He served as mayor of Dallas, Texas from 1995 to 2002; he also ran for the United States Senate in 2002.-Early life and career:...
notified Congress that President Obama planned to enter TPP negotiations "with the objective of shaping a high-standard, broad-based regional pact".
Since that time, six formal rounds of TPP negotiations have been held. The first round took place March 15–19, 2010, in Melbourne, Australia, the second round occurred June 14-18 in San Francisco, USA, a third round took place October 5–8, 2010, in Brunei, a fourth round was held December 6–10, 2010, in Auckland, New Zealand, the fifth round was from 14th-18th February in Santiago, Chile, while the sixth round was in Singapore from the 24th March to the 1st of April 2011.
On the 11th November 2011, Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda
Yoshihiko Noda
is the current Prime Minister of Japan, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan , and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet...
, announced Japanese negotiations to join the treaty.
Relations with potential members
CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
is an observer in the TPP talks but has not committed to join, purportedly because the United States and New Zealand have specifically blocked it, supposedly due to concerns over Canadian agricultural policy, specifically on dairy. Several pro-business and internationalist Canadian media outlets have raised concerns about this as a missed opportunity. In a feature in the Financial Post
Financial Post
The Financial Post was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new National Post, although the name Financial Post has been retained as the banner for that paper's business section and also lives on in the Post’s...
former Canadian trade negotiator Peter Clark
Peter Clark
Peter Clark may refer to:* Peter Clark , retired English professional footballer* Peter Clark , British historian* Peter D. Clark , Canadian politician...
claimed that the Harper government had been strategically out maneuvered by the Obama administration, Wendy Dobson and Diana Kuzmanovic for The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
argued for the economic necessity of the TPP for Canada. Embassy
Embassy (magazine)
Embassy magazine is a weekly Canadian Foreign Policy Newspaper. Founded in 2004 it covers defence, foreign policy, development and aid, trade and security news and opinion from a Canadian perspective. The Embassy offices are in Ottawa....
warned that Canada's position in APEC could be compromised by being excluded from both the US-oriented TPP and the proposed China-oriented ASEAN +3 trade agreement.
Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
is regarded as a potential future member but it would have to open its agricultural market in a way it refused to do in previous trade negotiations such as the Doha round
Doha round
The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization which commenced in November 2001. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, which will help facilitate the increase of global trade...
. Japan joined as an observer in the TPP discussions that took place November 13–14, 2010, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
.
South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
was officially requested to join the TPP negotiating rounds by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after the successful settlement of the US-South Korea FTA. The country already has bilateral trade agreements with other TPP countries, thus making any future multilateral TPP negotiation less complicated.
Controversy over Intellectual Property (IP) provisions
There has been criticism of some provisions relating to the enforcement of patents and copyrights alleged to be present in leaked copies of the US proposal for the agreement:
Overall, the USTR proposal for the TPP intellectual property chapter would:
(1) include a number of features that would lock-in as a global norm many controversial features of U.S. law, such as endless copyright terms.
(2) create new global norms that are contrary to U.S. legal traditions, such as those proposed to damages for infringement, the enforcement of patents against surgeons and other medical professional, rules concerning patents on biologic medicines, disclosure of information from ISPs, etc. (We will work on a detailed list).
(3) undermine many proposed reforms of the patent and copyright system, such as, for example, proposed legislation to increase access to orphaned copyrighted works by limiting damages for infringement, or statutory exclusions of "non-industrial" patents such as those issued for business methods.
At a public forum on 6 July 2011, legal experts in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
presented their concerns that the agreement could undermine law regarding Māori culture
Maori culture
Māori culture is the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, an Eastern Polynesian people, and forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture. Within the Māori community, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori...
, genetic modification, copyright, and remove the subsidised medicine New Zealanders have access to through Pharmac.
Ken Akamatsu
Ken Akamatsu
is a Japanese manga artist from Tokyo.Sailor Moon was his introduction to anime and manga fandom.In his teens, Akamatsu applied himself to Film Study . Eventually, he became famous as an illustrator featured in Comiket . He used the pen name...
, creator of Love Hina
Love Hina
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from October 21, 1998 to October 31, 2001 and was published in 14 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The series tells the story of Keitaro Urashima and his attempts to...
and Mahou Sensei Negima!, expressed concern the agreement could decimate the derivative dōjinshi
Dojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
(self-published) works prevalent in Japan. Akamatsu argues that the TPP "would destroy derivative dōjinshi. And as a result, the power of the entire manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
industry would also diminish." Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer and a Nihon University
Nihon University
Nihon University is the largest university in Japan. Akiyoshi Yamada, the minister of justice, founded Nihon Law School in October 1889....
professor, expressed concerns that the TPP could allow companies to restrict or stop import
Import
The term import is derived from the conceptual meaning as to bring in the goods and services into the port of a country. The buyer of such goods and services is referred to an "importer" who is based in the country of import whereas the overseas based seller is referred to as an "exporter". Thus...
s and export
Export
The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
s of intellectual property, such as licensed merchandise. For example, IP holders could restrict or stop importers from shipping merchandise such as DVD's and other related goods related to an anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
or manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
property into one country to protect local distribution of licensed merchandise already in the country via local licensors. At a NicoNico live seminar titled How Would TPP Change the Net and Copyrights? An In-Depth Examination: From Extending Copyright Terms to Changing the Law to Allow Unilateral Enforcement and Statutory Damages, artist Kazuhiko Hachiya warned that cosplay
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
could also fall under the TPP, and such an agreement could give law enforcement officials broad interpretive authority in dictating how people could dress up. Critics also have derided the agreement could also harm Japanese culture, where some segments have developed through parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
works.
External links
- Text of Original Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement
- United States - New Zealand Council - TPP Resources
- Letters from Ambassador Kirk announcing President Obama's intention to enter into TPP negotiations
- Office of the United States Trade Representative TPP Website
- New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade TPP Website
- Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry Overview of Trans-Pacific SEP
- Obama's 'Pacific century' a challenge to China Radio France Internationale in English