“Core Elements” Of TPP-11 Agreement Reached In Vietnam -

On November 10, 2017, Trade Ministers from the eleven remaining Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries (minus the United States) announced that they had reached an agreement on “core elements” of the renegotiated agreement. The remaining eleven nations – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – are now in the process of renegotiating the agreement without the United States. Trade Ministers reached this “framework for a new Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership” (CPTPP) at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Trade Ministerial Meeting, which was held in Danang, Vietnam.

The Ministers “agreed to Annex I and II which incorporates provisions of the TPP, with the exception of a limited set of provisions which will be suspended. This text also incorporates a list of four specific items for which substantial progress was made but consensus must be achieved prior to signing.” The Ministers gave assurances “that the CPTPP maintains the high standards, overall balance, and integrity of the TPP while ensuring the commercial and other interests of all participants and preserving our inherent right to regulate, including the flexibility of the Parties to set legislative and regulatory priorities.”