The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade and investment agreement under negotiation by 12 countries in the Pacific Rim. This report is made by the US Department of Agriculture to assess this partnership's potential impacts on the region's agriculture in 2025.What Is the Issue?

New leaks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership reveal Australia could be signing up to provisions that bolster the power of pharmaceutical companies and weaken our safeguards, writes Deborah Gleeson.Last night, WikiLeaks released a close-to-final draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership's (TPP) annex on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Wikileaks (wikileak.org) revealed draft text of the Investment Chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement on March 25th . The TPP Investment Chapter is dated 20 January 2015.Download draft text released here:

TOKYO (AP) — A deal between Japan and the U.S. needed to move ahead with a Pacific Rim trade pact is possible by this spring, a top Japanese trade negotiator said Tuesday.Top negotiators for the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership meet in Hawaii next week. Wendy Cutler, acting deputy U.S. trade representative, will visit Japan for talks beginning Thursday on the politically sensitive issue of dismantling protections for Japan's farm products and for U.S. autos and auto parts.

Japan’s new Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Yoshimasa Hayashi, who previously served in the position in 2012–14, was a logical choice to take over from his disgraced predecessor Koya Nishikawa. He arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office (Kantei) only five minutes after Nishikawa left, and was apparently selected because he was ‘the only one that could immediately do the job’.

Vietnam and the U.S. have vowed to closely coordinate in boosting cooperation between the two countries, including finalizing negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.  The vow was made at a reception hosted by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh for U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius in Hanoi on Thursday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

By the end of 2014, TPP members underwent 19 official rounds of negotiations and many others at chief negotiator and ministerial levels along with high-level meetings.They had finalized negotiations on cooperation and capacity building; Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs); For the development, cohesion policy and the environment facilitating the supply chain; Customs; Food safety and animal and plant quarantine; Telecommunications; Competition policy (not including the issue of State-owned enterprises). 

The proposed ASEAN Economic Community could offer new market opportunities for nations such as Japan that are currently in talks to form the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Malaysian minister has said.Abdul Wahid Omar, who serves in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Economic Planning, said in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have so far implemented 80 percent of the initiatives needed to enable such integration, and that they aim to bring the AEC into existence by the end of this year.

In principle, almost everyone's in favor of free trade. It promotes international harmony, raises wages, helps economies grow. It's an article of historical faith that the enactment of harsh protective U.S. tariffs in 1930 contributed to the Great Depression. And who wants that?

(Reuters) - The Obama administration is confident lawmakers will warm up to a proposed Pacific free trade deal on the grounds it is a chance for the United States, rather than China, to dictate the rules of Asian trade, a top official said on Thursday. "It's a choice between us writing it and, frankly, China writing it, which I think is very compelling to many members of Congress," Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews said during a call to announce more support for rural exporters, such as by promoting more trade shows and workshops.