Ed. note: This is a crosspost from USTR.gov.
Today, the Obama Administration released the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as negotiated by the United States and 11 partner countries across the Asia-Pacific region. It’s a historic agreement, and releasing it to the public is an important milestone; but it is also just one step in an extensive process of consultation and consideration provided for by the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — bipartisan legislation that Congress passed and President Obama signed into law this year.
The agreement boosts Made-in-America exports, supports higher-paying American jobs, and levels the playing field so that Americans can compete and win in the global economy. And in addition to advancing our economic interests, TPP reflects our values — promoting fairer competition, a cleaner environment, and stronger protections for workers across nearly 40 percent of the global economy.
In order to help make sure Americans and Congress can fully evaluate what’s in TPP for themselves, we released the text today alongside an array of resources designed to increase the public’s understanding of what’s in the deal.
So far, the Obama administration has made the following TPP materials public:
On top of this, we’ll be responding directly to the American people and their representatives in Congress — through travel, real-time conversations online, conference calls, and briefings for Congress, stakeholders, and the press. So we hope you’ll follow @USTradeRep and the Director of the White House Business Council @Diana44 on Twitter, and check out USTR.gov/TPP as well as WhiteHouse.gov/Trade.
We also know that there is interest in a roadmap for the TPP process going forward, as set forth by the TPA. The next steps will allow for a period of careful and extensive review and consideration before TPP is signed by President Obama, and before Congress then votes on the agreement. Here’s what you can expect:
We are looking forward to many months of discussion and examination of the TPP text. We fully expect that once Congress and the American people have conducted a careful and thorough review of the agreement, it will earn strong, bipartisan support.
Tim Reif is the Chief Transparency Officer for the U.S. Trade Representative.