Trans-Pacific Partnership to be Signed in February 2016 in New Zealand Agencia EFE
go to original November 19, 2015

Celeste Drake (AFL-CIO) and Melinda St. Louis (GTW) pose with representatives from Mexican unions and civil society organizations at a seminar on the dangers of the TPP in Mexico City. (Public Citizen)

The dozen countries that concluded negotiations in October on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement decided Wednesday that the deal would be signed on Feb. 4, 2016, in New Zealand and that the signatories' respective legislatures would have two years to ratify it.

That decision was adopted in Manila during a meeting arranged by U.S. President Barack Obama, who has spearheaded this agreement aimed at linking 12 Pacific Rim countries accounting for 40 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).

The leaders of all 12 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States) took part in the gathering, held on the sidelines of the 23rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Manila.

In a joint statement on the trade pact, which will eliminate tariffs on some 18,000 products, the 12 countries hailed the successful conclusion of more than five years of negotiations.

Trade ministers and negotiating teams had delivered "a result that achieves the goal set out in 2011 of a comprehensive, balanced, and transformational regional agreement - one that spans the Pacific, touches three continents, and unites 800 million people," the TPP leaders said in a joint statement.

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