The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was a multinational trade deal that tried to make it easier for its member countries to work together economically and build stronger economic ties. TPP talks started in 2005, and after many years of heated talks, the deal was finally signed on February 4, 2016. The deal brought together 12 Pacific Rim countries, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. These countries have different economies and come from Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. About 40% of the world’s GDP came from these countries as a whole.
The main goals of the TPP were to make trade more open, boost economic growth, and help people find jobs. The deal tried to reach these goals by lowering tariffs and other barriers on goods and services, setting up shared rules and standards for trade, and protecting intellectual property rights, among other things.
One of the most important things about the TPP was that it focused on modern trade problems that earlier trade agreements didn’t deal with well enough. This included rules about e-commerce, digital trade, and the flow of data across borders, all of which were becoming more important in the global economy.
The deal was very controversial, and different groups in member countries and around the world were against it. Critics said that the TPP would hurt national rights because it would let investors sue governments through processes called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Concerns were also raised about how better intellectual property laws for pharmaceutical companies could hurt workers’ rights, environmental rules, and access to cheap medicines.
The biggest problem the TPP had was when the United States pulled out of the deal in January 2017 under the government of President Donald Trump. The US was one of the biggest economies in the TPP, so the US pulling out was a big blow to the deal’s economic prospects. But the other 11 countries stuck with the deal and signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in March 2018. Most of the original TPP rules were kept in the CPTPP, but some controversial rules, like those about intellectual property, were put on hold.
India was both interested in and worried about the TPP. On the plus side, if India had been a part of the deal, it could have gotten easier access to rich markets in the US and Japan. Also, it would have helped India get more foreign investment by making it a better place to do business and giving investors more security.
Also, the TPP could have helped India broaden its trade relationships, making it less dependent on certain markets and giving it more chances to grow its exports in areas like IT, medicines, and textiles.
But there were worries about how the TPP might hurt India’s economy. One of India’s biggest worries was that it might have to deal with more competition from TPP countries in areas where India has always had an edge. For example, India’s generic pharmaceutical business, which made cheap medicines, might have had trouble because of the TPP’s better rights for intellectual property.
Another worry was that India’s exclusion from the TPP could have led to trade diversion, where countries in the deal might have chosen trading with each other over India because of the lower tariffs and other preferential provisions in the TPP.
Also, there were worries that the TPP’s strict rules on intellectual property could have made it harder for India to come up with new ideas and get access to cheap technologies and drugs. The rules of the deal about data localization and digital trade could have also made it harder for India to control the flow of data across borders and protect private data.
Overall, the TPP could have had a big effect on India’s trade and economy, both for the better and for the worse. Even though it opened up more markets and made it easier for foreign companies to spend, it also put pressure on some industries and their ability to make their own rules. But it’s important to remember that the United States left the TPP at the beginning of 2017. This stopped the deal from going into effect and changed it in a big way.