TPP's Big Ambition Could Be Its Undoing (CFR)

When the trade ministers of 12 Pacific Rim nations meet in Auckland, New Zealand this week to affix their signatures to the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, they could be forgiven a moment to bask in the accomplishment. After more than seven years of difficult talks, they will have concluded the most complex and ambitious regional trade pact ever negotiated, which could bind together economies counting for 40 percent of global gross domestic product.

But no sooner will the deal be sealed than another countdown begins. At some point over the next two years, each of the 12 will have to navigate their own domestic politics to ensure the agreement is ratified and enters into force. For some countries, the negotiations needed to cross that hurdle will be especially challenging. While final ratification seems more likely than not, the very ambition of the TPP could yet be its undoing.

Auckland is a fitting place for the signing. The TPP began more than a decade ago as a small trans-Pacific deal among New Zealand, Chile, Brunei and Singapore. The U.S. asked to join in 2008 and others like Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico and Canada jumped onto the bandwagon. Then in 2013, Japan was invited to join, adding the world's third largest economy to the mix.

http://www.cfr.org/united-states/tpps-big-ambition-could-its-undoing/p37505